The Spellcrafter
by Alcyone
Summary: Susan Bones, apprentice Spellcrafter, learns to control her newfound gift and survive her first years at Hogwarts. Beta-read Chapter 10 up
1. The Wand in the Window

The Usual Disclaimer: None of this is mine. It never was mine, it never will be mine. It all belongs to JK Rowling. I'm not making any money from it. 

A/N: J.K. Rowling said that Voldemort killed Susan Bones' grandparents (Barnes and Noble chat). Hagrid said in book 1 that the Bones were killed by Voldemort and that they were among the best witches and wizards of the age (SS, pg. 56, hardcover). We also know Susan was sorted into Hufflepuff and that she is a half blood. All other information about Susan and her family is from me. St. Mungo's Children's Home is taken with much appreciation from Arabella and Zsenya's _After the End_. Many thanks to Jade and Aristyar, for their insight and their help, and to Jessabelle, for Brit picking.

Chapter One: The Wand in the Window

Susie Bones awoke with a start. She had been dreaming of her beloved Granddad, who had died two short years ago. In her dream, he had been in his dusty wood shop, building a cradle for the doll she had just received for Christmas. She could still see him standing there, highlighted by the bright morning sun streaming in through the window, making the wood dust in the air sparkle.

Working in the woodshop with him was one of the things she missed most. His wrinkled hands were sure and steady as he sawed and planed and polished, creating masterpieces. The transformation of raw lumber into beautiful furniture had always fascinated her, and she remembered with pride the small table she had built nearly by herself. Her grandmother had set it in the kitchen, moving a baker's rack into the garage to make room for it.

With an aching pain in her heart, Susie pulled herself back to the present. She looked at the clock on the far wall of her dormitory-- 5:40 a.m. It wouldn't be long until the six o'clock wake-up call. Quietly she climbed out of the narrow white bed and pulled a small, battered wooden box out from underneath it. With her finger, she traced the floral design her Granddad had carved into the lid, and then rummaged through her outgrown childhood treasures until she found it. The small cloth doll she remembered from her dream. Her Grandmother had made it for her when she was just five. She studied the doll carefully. The yarn hair was nearly gone and the face had faded away to an empty circle. The once blue dress was stained and torn. How she loved the simple toy! She held the doll tightly to her as silent tears streamed down her face. It still smelled of her grandparents' house, and of another, happier life.

Susie started as an older girl a few beds down turned and gave a particularly loud snore. She glanced at the clock-- it was almost six. She shoved the doll into the box again and pushed it under the bed. They would tease her for sure if they saw she had been crying, and she couldn't afford to get into anymore trouble. She climbed back into bed and tried to wipe away any trace of her tears.

She lay in bed listening to the snores of the others and staring up at the ceiling. She hated the orphanage and everything in it, from the snoring girls who teased her to the cheap brown wallpaper.

All too soon the bell rang, breaking into her thoughts. Girls all around her began to stir, yawning and complaining. Another day at St. Mungo's Children's Home had begun.

~~*~*~*~~

Like nearly all the children at St. Mungo's Children's Home, Susie had been orphaned by Voldemort. He had slaughtered her parents and her father's parents with one foul spell. Only Harry Potter had been able to stop the terrible destruction, though he was just a baby. Susie knew Harry was her own age, and she wished more than anything it had been she who had defeated the Dark Lord, not Harry. She knew that if she had, she wouldn't be here, just one more unimportant orphan in the Home. She would be loved and respected. Everyone would cater to her. She would be rich. She could have everything she had ever wanted and it would all be new. She would have been able to save her family, but that was Harry Potter's life, not hers. It just wasn't fair!

Susie's family must have had time to hide her, maybe they had even known the attack was coming, for Susie had later been found in the back corner of a dark, dusty closet. She had been frightened and upset, but otherwise unscathed. At least her mother's parents had survived the War. Death had waited to steal them till she was nine, taking them both in a car accident. Two grave looking witches had come to tell her that Grandmother and Grandad wouldn't be coming home. Then they brought her here. She hated it. At home she had been special, her grandparents had always had time for her. Now she was just one more orphan to feed and clothe and educate at an overcrowded, understaffed orphanage. No one cared about her at all. She was all alone in the world and it scared her to think about it. She didn't even have any friends here. All the others had formed their own little groups, and no one wanted to include her, afraid she would get them into trouble, too.

She had run away three times already. She wasn't certain what she was looking for, or running to, but she was certain she'd know it if she found it. She had to keep looking until she did. After her third and most successful attempt (it had been two weeks until they found her) they had put a charm on her, which not only tracked her location, it set off an alarm when she tried to leave the grounds.

For awhile she had set off the alarm on purpose in the middle of the night and then run back to bed, just to annoy the matrons. After a few times, they had set her to scrubbing the mountains of dirty dishes produced by each meal, and she hadn't been inclined to try it again.

Surely Hogwarts would be better than this. It had to be. The older children all went to school there and it was all they talked about when they came back over the summer holidays. Letters from the school would be coming today to all the students. She couldn't wait to get hers.

Susie ran down to breakfast, knocking over some of the younger children in her hurry, and earning dirty looks. She plopped down in her seat near the matrons' table and held out her bowl to be served oatmeal, making a face at it as she received it. This was the fourth time they had had oatmeal this week! She stirred her it around and around, too excited to eat.

She peered anxiously at the window through which the Hogwarts post owls entered, willing them to hurry up and come. At last they flew into the hall in a great mass of hoots and feathers. Letters rained down on the students, who caught them eagerly and tore them open as the younger students looked on jealously. Where was hers? It had to be coming! It just had to!

After what seemed like an eternity, a big brown owl flew over and dropped a letter in her oatmeal. Hastily she wiped the sticky oatmeal off the envelope. Then, with trembling fingers, she tore open the envelope and slid the letter out. She had been accepted! There they were--the letter, the list and the ticket! 

"I got in!" she squealed to a matron passing by.

The matron gave her a thin smile. "What a relief!"

Susie grimaced at her and began to eat her now cold oatmeal.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie stared back at her reflection with disappointment. Her new school robes were at least two sizes too big and badly worn, but were the smallest the Home had. She lifted the hem of her robes from where they brushed the floor to reveal the scuffed black shoes she had also been given. Bad as they were, at least _they_ fitted.

She sighed. With these robes, she'd stand out like a sore thumb at Hogwarts. Everyone would know she was a charity student just by looking at her. It wasn't so bad here, where everyone had shabby robes and worn possessions, but everything all the other first years had would be new. She didn't want to ruin her chances of making friends at Hogwarts by sticking out. "Aren't there any newer ones?" she asked. "Carter McKinnon got new robes this year."

"Carter outgrew his and we didn't have any bigger ones. You know that. Step up and I'll alter yours. They'll look good as new," the sewing matron assured her. She obediently stepped up on the stool, not wanting to push her luck. She had gotten in a lot of trouble for knocking down the younger children the other day, and didn't want to get in any more. The annual trip to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies had been announced this morning, and she didn't want to miss it.

She continued to watch her reflection as the seamstress magically altered the robes. Straight sandy hair, light blue eyes too large for her small pointed face, and a smattering of freckles across her nose completed the picture. Even with the hem the right length, the robes still hung loosely on her slight frame. Susie wondered if she would ever begin to grow and fill out.

"All finished."

With that, Susie stepped down and pulled the robes over her head. After handing them back to the matron, she went down to the aptly named 'Hand-Me-Down Room'. Filled with outgrown school things and donations from charitable wizards and witches, it was where all the students got their school supplies. Susie looked around. Judging by the disorderly state of the room, she must have been one of the last to be given her school things. After several minutes of searching, Madam Dray, the tired looking matron in charge of the room, found a badly dented cauldron and a tarnished brass telescope with a cracked lens. After a few more minutes of rummaging, the matron came up with a potions set with half the contents missing.

"You can just fill those in using the supplies from the student store cupboard at Hogwarts," the tired matron said quickly when she saw Susie open her mouth to protest. Remembering the field trip, Susie promptly closed her mouth and watched the matron select some books from the piles stacked against one wall. She came over and dumped the books into Susie's cauldron. Susie bent over to stack them neatly. They looked as though they couldn't take much more abuse than what they had already received.

Straightening up, she saw Madam Dray unlock a cupboard on the wall and pull out a beaten up cardboard box with 'WANDS' written sloppily on one side. She peered into the box the matron had set before her. The selection was disappointing. There were a dozen or so wands, all of them chipped and scratched. A few were obviously unusable. Susie reached in and took one that appeared a bit less worn than the rest. She held it uncertainly, wondering what she was supposed to do with it, until--

"Go on then, give it a wave." Madam Dray said wearily. Susie waved it a bit. Nothing happened. "Try another," the matron suggested. Susie pulled a second wand from the box. Was something supposed to happen? She tried every wand without success.

The matron sighed. "That's strange. We'll have to see what else we can do. Maybe Ollivander's will have some cheap wands. All the other students have found wands without any problems."

~~*~*~*~~

Susie wished Madam Scatcherd would slow down. The matron was speeding through Diagon Alley as fast as she could go short of running and the handful of students accompanying her were doing their best to keep up. Madam Scatcherd had Susie's hand in a vice like grip, preventing her from lingering as the other children did. They reached Flourish and Blotts in record time, and as soon as they entered the dusty, book-filled shop, the matron began haggling with the store clerk for quills, ink, and parchment for the students.

"Erm…let me check with the owner," the intimidated teenaged clerk stammered and then fled.

The matron yanked Susie so that the little girl was facing her, then barked, "Go down to Ollivander's and find a wand. I'll come for you when I'm done here. And don't you dare try to run away!" Susie winced as the matron's nasal voice went through her head. Madam Scatcherd turned from Susie, straining her neck in the direction the clerk had gone. As soon as it was safe Susie stuck her tongue out at her. She tugged on her captive hand until the matron let go, then hurried from the shop. As if she would run away now, just before she was to go to Hogwarts.

Once out of sight, she slowed down and strolled the short distance to Ollivander's, drinking in the sights and sounds of the crowded street. She had only been to Diagon Alley once, on a field trip with the other orphans shortly after she had come to the Children's Home. They hadn't stayed nearly long enough for Susie, to whom the whole magical world was still new. She always tried to come back here when she ran away, but had never been able to find it.

Finally at Ollivander's, with no excuse to linger, she entered the shop. The air seemed to sparkle with something almost visible, and a heavy, dampening sort of silence filled the shop. Susie peered into the darkness, wondering if there was anyone else back there.

"Susan Bones." A soft, hissing voice echoed in the store. Susie spun around, startled. An old man with wild white hair and eyes as pale as the moon stood behind her, where she was certain no one had been before.

"I thought I'd be seeing you soon," he whispered as the perused the tall, box-filled shelves. "Those wands at the orphanage…they're not for someone…like you."

"Like me?" Susie asked eagerly. Was it true? Was there something special about her? Hope rose within her and she felt as if she'd die if she didn't find out.

"Yes," and the old man fixed Susie with a stare that made the words die on her lips. "Like you."

It was clear she'd find out no more from him. Doubt replaced hope. Maybe he hadn't meant anything by it after all. Maybe all he meant was that she wasn't as gifted as the others. She pushed the thought aside and tried to ignore the disappointment she felt and concentrate on her first impression, that she was too good for the orphanage wands.

"Try this one—willow and phoenix feather, 7 ½ inches, nice and flexible." Susie had barely grasped it, when Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand. "Here you go, rosewood and dragon heartstring, 9 inches, a bit stiff, good for transfiguration." Again, he took it from her almost immediately. "Ash and unicorn hair, 10 ¼ inches, inflexible." Mr. Ollivander had gone all the way to the top shelf for this one, but it was no better than the other two.

Susie tried wand after wand without success. Rejected wands overflowed the spindly chair and were stacked on the floor and counter. Susie looked at them uncertainly. Why was she having so much trouble finding a wand? It couldn't be because she was a squib? Could it? Cold fear filled her. No! She was special! She had to be! Granddad had always said she was! He ought to know! Mr. Ollivander just didn't have the right wand for her! That was all! Maybe he'd even have to make a new one just for her! She was too special to have just any old wand! Susie grinned at the thought, stuffing away her doubt.

Madam Scatchard walked in and gasped. She opened and shut her mouth soundlessly for a moment before stammering, "Are…are you doing inventory?"

"No." Mr. Ollivander didn't even look at her.

Madam Scatcherd looked a bit put out, but quickly regained her composure and her bad temper. "Just give her a wand! We haven't got all day! And make it a cheap one, she's an orphan, not an heiress!"

Mr. Ollivander froze in place, his hand stopped in midair as he reached for another box. Slowly, he lowered his hand and began to noiselessly descend the rickety ladder with deliberate care. He reached the dusty floor and paused again, the slowly turned to face the matron, who was starting to look nervous. Mr. Ollivander gave her a long, piercing stare with his large, pale eyes, like he could see right through her and didn't like what he saw. Susie was certain no one had ever given the matron a look like that before, and she felt the a bit smug at seeing her old enemy get her comeuppance.

Madam Scatchard closed her mouth and told Susie in a strained sort of voice, "I'll be in the Leaky Cauldron when you're done." She rushed out of the wand shop. Susie stared after her, amazed and elated. No one argued with Madam Scatchard and lived to tell about it. Susie wondered if she'd have to pay for the matron's humiliation later, or if the she would ignore the incident entirely.

She didn't have time for contemplation, though, for Mr. Ollivander had handed her another wand. Automatically, she took it, and, as she had come to expect, Mr. Ollivander took it away. Susie looked around the once tidy shop at the piles and piles of wands lying everywhere and grew a bit discouraged. What if he couldn't find her a wand? Could she go to Hogwarts without one? There were now more wands stacked on the counter and against the walls than there were on the shelves. Mr. Ollivander, however, didn't seem at all upset. Indeed, he seemed almost…pleased. He handed her another wand. And took it away. He continued to hand her wands, but it was clear to Susie his mind was elsewhere. Every so often he would glance over Susie's shoulder, to something she couldn't see. She turned around to look, but saw only the bustling street. Maybe he was watching for other customers? 

"I wonder…" Susie heard him mumble. And he looked behind her again. Susie watched him slowly descend the rickety ladder he'd been using to reach the top shelves. Without looking at her, he walked past her. Susie turned slowly to watch him. He approached the window. What on earth could be out there? But he wasn't looking out the window. Rather, he bent down and lifted something off a faded purple cushion in the window display Susie hadn't noticed before. A wand. Carefully, almost reverently, he offered the wand to Susie. She took it from his hand and as she lifted it, the wand grew warm in her hand.

Suddenly she was in dark, closet-like room with a young woman she didn't know. The woman was surrounded by ancient books and papers. As Susie watched, the woman lifted the wand, _her _wand, in triumph. Suddenly, the woman spun around, startled by a noise Susie couldn't hear. The look of joy on her face changed instantly to one of terror, and Susie could see her mouthing the word _no! _Susie quickly spun around to see what had frightened her, but only saw Diagon Alley, looking anything but dark and mysterious. Susie looked around wildly for the woman and the tiny room, but they was gone, as suddenly and unexpectedly as she had appeared. The vision was gone, but it left Susie feeling cold and frightened, and for some strange reason-- sad, as if she had lost a dear friend.

She stared down at the wand, not sure she wanted it, but half hoping to see the woman again.

"You've got it then…," he murmured.

Susie listened anxiously, waiting to learn more, but Mr. Ollivander's voice faded away. After a few silent moments, Susie knew she'd hear no more, and rummaged through her pockets for the coins Madam Scatcherd had thrust at her as the matron fled the shop. She was full of questions, but was certain he'd give her no answers.

"Take it, take it!" Mr. Ollivander cried softly. "It's yours by right!" Susie slowly put the money back into her pocket.

"Go on now," he said gently. "The matron will be waiting for you." Susie turned to leave the shop, giving the shop and the strange little man one last look. "Good luck, Susan Bones," she heard him whisper as she left the store.

Susie wandered down Diagon Alley a trance, her mind full of all the strange things Mr. Ollivander had said and the young woman she had seen. Who was she? What had frightened her so? Susie shivered in spite of the August heat.

She was surprised when she reached the brick wall dividing the pub and the Alley, she hadn't noticed anything during the short walk there. She pulled the wand out of her pocket for one last look before she reached Madam Scatcherd. It was made of some dark wood that Susie had never seen before. Maybe it was a reflection, but it seemed to have a faint golden glow about it, and it felt the tiniest bit warmer than it should have been. Clearly it was old, very old, but not battered like the second hand wands at the Home. It was obviously well cared for. The design was simple, not much more than a plain polished shaft with no real handle, but it had a sort of dignity even the most fashionable new wands couldn't match. Mr. Ollivander had told her the length and qualities of every wand she had tried. Every wand except this one-- the wand in the window.


	2. Journey to Hogwarts

Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Don't sue me.

Chapter Two: Journey to Hogwarts

This was the day she had been anxiously awaiting since she had come to St. Mungo's Children's Home-- the day she would go to Hogwarts. It was finally here and it was real. She looked around Platform 9 ¾ eagerly, determined not to miss anything. The pressing crowds of students jostling each other trying to find their friends, the bright red train billowing smoke, and the screeches of hundreds of owls and the protests of just as many unhappy cats filled her senses. Even the fact that Madam Scatcherd had accompanied the students couldn't dampen Susie's high spirits. Madam Scatcherd seemed to hate all the orphans, but had had a particular aversion to Susie since that fateful trip to Diagon Alley where Mr. Ollivander had so thoroughly snubbed the matron in front of Susie. She had done everything possible to make Susie's remaining weeks at the Home miserable, trying to blame anything that went wrong on Susie, and watching her like a hawk, trying to catch her breaking one of the orphanage's many rules.

"Susan Bones!" a high-pitched voice called over the crowd.

"Here!" Susie shouted back, looking around for the owner of the voice. It was Madam Harvey, the other matron accompanying the students, taking role. Knowing she had been accounted for and wouldn't be humiliated by matrons prowling the train looking for her, Susie dragged her trunk from the pile and hauled it towards the train before anyone saw her with the crowd of orphans. She made her way to the luggage car and tried unsuccessfully several times to hoist her trunk into the compartment.

"Here, let me get that." Offered a tall redheaded boy with a shiny prefect's badge. He lifted the trunk easily and tossed it carelessly into the car.

"Thanks." Susie stammered, looking up at him with admiration.

"Not a problem." And the boy turned and left. Susie watched him as he made his way down the platform and disappear into a car towards the front of the train. Susie also began to walk down the platform, looking for a likely car, until a flash of orange caught her eye. She turned to see a family of redheads, a mother, a little girl, and a group of boys of various ages. The mother's bustling, fussing, loving ways reminded her sharply of her grandmother. A heavy ache of sorrow filled her, and she turned away from the happy family and entered the nearest door into the train. She walked blindly down the aisle until she came to an empty compartment. She stumbled in, pulled the door shut, sat down in the corner and stared out the window, which afforded a perfect view of the mother sending her children off with hugs and admonitions. Unbidden, hot, silent tears began to stream down her face.

"Are you okay?" a soft voice asked. Susie looked up. A girl about her own age sat in the corner opposite her. Susie hadn't even seen her.

"I'm fine." Susie said quickly, forcing back her tears with practiced ease. Hastily she wiped her face on the back of her sleeve.

"I'm Hannah," the girl offered her a tentative smile.

Susie twisted her face to smile back and quietly introduced herself

Awkwardness filled the small compartment, and after a moment, both girls turned to stare out the window. Susie was thankful to see that the family was gone.

The train lurched and began a slow, steady acceleration out of the station.

"We're moving," Hannah said uncertainly.

"Yeah," Susie agreed, and they both turned back to the window.

"Are you nervous?" Susie asked quietly a moment later.

"Yeah."

"So'm I" Susie admitted. The girls smiled for real this time, and the awkwardness was gone.

BANG! The compartment door flew open and three first year girls tramped in and threw themselves into the seats, chattering and giggling madly all the while.

"Oh." One of the girls had noticed Susie and Hannah. The other two went quiet. "I'm Parvati, this is Lavender, and this is Mandy," the first girl said, motioning at her friends.

Susie and Hannah introduced themselves.

"Your eyes are red," Mandy promptly pointed out.

"Allergies," Susie lied swiftly. She glanced over at Hannah, and knew Hannah wouldn't give her away.

After a moments pause, the trio continued their chat, ignoring Susie and Hannah completely. Susie watched them from her corner. They were like the birds at the feeder her grandmum had had in the backyard—noisy, flighty, and constantly squabbling. Susie wondered vaguely if the new owners of the house had kept the feeder. Her grandfather had made it especially for her grandmother. It was strange to think of other people living there. She had always had a vague sort of belief that her grandparents were still there, waiting for her, though she knew it wasn't true.

A girl identical to Parvati popped her head into the compartment, shattering Susie's musings. "A third year girl has a pack of tarot cards and she says she'll tell our futures!" the girl announced. The three girls squealed with excitement and followed the visitor to the tarot reader.

Susie and Hannah grinned in relief and began to talk. Susie found out that Hannah was Muggle born, and that she hadn't any clue she was magical until she had gotten her letter. Hannah's parents were still uncertain about the whole venture, but had agreed to let her go after a witch had come and explained everything to them. Susie told Hannah that her dad was a wizard but her mum was a Muggle, but that they had died when she was just a baby and that her Muggle grandparents had raised her. Susie didn't reveal that she had lived at the Children's Home for the past two years. The older students had told her this could be something of a stigma at Hogwarts, and Susie had decided to conceal this for as long as possible.

Hannah knew little about the different Houses and magic in general, and Susie told her she didn't know much either, which was sort of true. If she had to pretend she was Muggle born to keep her secret, so be it. Susie didn't really care which House she was in, she was just glad to get to go to Hogwarts. It occurred to her that she didn't know which House her father had been in. Her grandparents had never told her anything about her father, saying that they hadn't really known him, if Susie chanced to ask about him.

When the witch with the food cart came, they had shared Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, laughing and daring each other to try the odd coloured ones. They ate Chocolate Frogs and had decided that if they were in the same House they would share a card collection. All too soon the train slowed down and pulled into the Hogsmeade station. After the chattering trio had left, the girls had been uninterrupted except for a girl looking for someone else's toad, and Susie and Hannah had become fast friends and were hoping fervently they would be in the same House. They got off the train and their nervousness returned.

"Firs' years!" a booming voice called out over the noise of the crowd. "Firs' years this way!" Susie and Hannah followed the voice to where a cluster of scared looking first years had gathered around a massive man with wild hair and a huge bushy beard.

"Ever'one here?" he called. "Right then! Follow me!"

He led them down a narrow path to the edge of a lake where a group of small boats. "No more'n four to a boat!" he told them. Susie and Hannah clambered into a boat followed by two boys they didn't know. "Forward!" the giant said, and the boats began to glide noiselessly across the black lake to Hogwarts.

A stern looking witch met them at the castle and led them into the Great Hall to be sorted.

The witch who had met them at the castle led them in a straight line through the Great Hall. This by far worse than when she had first come to St. Mungo's Children's Home. Susie focused on Hannah's fat blonde plaits bobbing back and forth in front of her as she walked what seemed like miles to the front of the Hall where a filthy, patched up hat sat on a stool. Susie wondered vaguely if someone had left it there by accident. Then the most extraordinary thing happened—the hat began to _sing_! It sang a song about the four Houses who belonged where. Susie stared at it in amazement. When it had finished it's song, the witch made a short speech that could have been in a foreign language for all Susie understood of it, then called the first name.

"Abbott, Hannah." Susie watched her friend stumble out of line and up to the stool. The hat slipped down over Hannah's eyes and soon it called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Hannah went over and sat down at the table on the right. Suddenly Susie felt very alone.

"Bones, Susan" That was her name! She walked slowly over to the stool, keeping her head high and trying desperately not to show her sudden fear. She hoisted herself up onto the stool. The Great Hall and thousands of eyes all focused on her disappeared as the witch dropped the Hat over her eyes.

'Susan Bones, eh? I remember your grandmother…' a small, soft voice whispered in her mind. 'Well, well, let's see…you'd be a credit to any House. Loyalty, I see, and her talent, oh yes, ambition too, lots of that, going to prove yourself are you?'

'I will!' Susie insisted franticly. 'I'll show them! I'll be the best witch they ever saw! I'll be important! More important than…' and she reigned in her agitated thoughts.

'More important than Harry Potter' the Sorting Hat finished for her in its soft voice. 'Life's never fair, is it? But you could be, you know.' Susie hardly dared to breathe. 'You'll have to work hard for that, though, won't you? Oh yes, very hard indeed. And the House for that is—

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat screamed aloud.

Someone lifted the hat over her eyes, and she stepped down from the stool with trembling legs. Somehow, she made it over to the table on the right, where people were applauding politely, and sat down next to Hannah. Suddenly everything fell into perspective again. She had done it. She had been sorted, and sorted into the same House as Hannah. It was all over. Over before she had even had time to work up a proper panic. She thanked her father again for a last name that began with 'B'. It had been an advantage in the alphabetically organized world of the orphanage, and had proved helpful here too. What exactly had the Hat said to her? She thought vaguely that it might have been important, and tried briefly to remember, but pushed it from her mind. Watching her fellow first years being Sorted was much more interesting, especially since she was at her House table and they were up there in front of everyone, still waiting for their turn to come.

"Potter, Harry" the witch's voice called out, and whispers filled the Hall. 

"That's Harry Potter. The _real_ Harry Potter," Hannah informed her in an awed voice.

"I know," Susie hissed back, and she lifted herself out of her chair a few inches to see over the heads of the other first years who had joined her House. There he was leaving the now much smaller crowd of frightened students. Susie sat back down in her chair with a small thud. He was _ordinary_. There was no other way to describe him. He was small and skinny, almost as small as she was, and he had wild black hair and _glasses_-- glasses of all things! Susie was so disappointed and indignant she thought she might cry. He wasn't supposed to be like this! He defeated You Know Who when he was only a baby. He was supposed to be tall and strong and handsome, like the heroes in the fairy tales her grandmother had told her so many times. He probably didn't even have the scar on his forehead like everyone said. He wasn't special. He wasn't special at all. It was just chance that he had killed You-Know-Who. You-Know-Who was going to die anyhow. That's what one of the matrons had told her about her grandparents. If it's your time to die, it's your time to die and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Harry had just been there when it was You-Know-Who's time to die. It could have been her. It should have been her.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat called, breaking the anxious silence that had fallen over the hall. The table on the far left exploded with cheers. They obviously thought he was special. 'Some people will believe anything.' Susie thought loftily. She knew better. She ignored the disappointed talk around her, she could scarcely believe that people were actually sorry he wasn't in their House. She stared resolutely the table, deliberately ignoring Hannah, who was trying to tell her something about the great Harry Potter. Fortunately, there was only a handful of students left. Soon they too were Sorted and food covered the table. The sheer quantity and the variety of the food shocked Susie out of her sulk. It seemed like there was every food she had ever heard of and more that were totally unfamiliar. The food at the orphanage had been good and plentiful, but it couldn't begin to compare to this. She wondered if it would be like this every night.

"Here." Susie said contritely, since Hannah seemed rather sore about being ignored. "Try this, it looks very nice" and she handed Hannah a dish of some sort of potatoes. Hannah took it from her silently and scooped some onto her plate.

"Will we keep our card collection with your stuff or mine, do you think?" Susie tried again. Hannah brightened at this.

"What cards do we have again?" Hannah asked. Susie pulled them out of her pocket to show her. Some of the other first years produced cards too, and they began comparing and trading. When the others found out the girls just started their collection, they began giving them cards they had doubles of, with promises of more when they unpacked their real collections. The older students looked on tolerantly. When dinner had ended and they had sung the school song, the prefects led them away to the common room. All of a sudden, Susie felt exhausted. She dragged her feet up and down countless flights of stairs and through miles of corridors to a warm, cozy room filled with chairs and couches with fat, soft cushions and bright fluffy rugs. The prefect directed the girls to one dorm and the boys to another. Susie quickly found her trunk and changed into her nightdress. She sunk into the nearest bed and fell asleep immediately.

Pale morning sunshine stretched across Susie's face and woke her up. Sitting up sleepily, she looked around, disoriented. A moment later, she remembered everything— she was at Hogwarts, in Hufflepuff, and today was the first day of classes. She looked over at the beds on either side of her. Hannah was still asleep in the bed to her right, her face peaceful and her plaits coming undone. In the other bed lay Megan, or was it Ainsley? Susie couldn't remember. She had met lots of people at the feast last night and had quickly lost track of who was who. Susie glanced at the clock on the wall, where the hand still pointed to 'Sleep.' Susie rose and pulled her cloak out of her trunk and wrapped it around her. Even though it was still summer, there was a hint of autumn coolness in the air. She looked around the room more closely. She had been too tired last night to notice anything about it. It was curiously long and narrow, like it might have been a hall of some sort at one time and wasn't now. The four four-poster beds draped in cheery yellow cloth were against one long wall. On the other wall were their trunks and some desks and chairs. On both walls tall stained glass windows colored the early morning light red and blue and gold.

"'Morning," a sleepy voice called to her. Susie turned around. It was Hannah. "Our first morning at Hogwarts," Hannah pointed out. The girls dressed quickly in the chilly air and went down to the Common Room to arrange all the new Chocolate Frog cards in their collection 'til breakfast time came.

Susie was as impressed with breakfast as she was with dinner last night. No more gloppy oatmeal and burnt toast for her. She helped herself to scrambled eggs and bacon as a prefect passed out schedules to everyone. She studied hers carefully then compared hers to Hannah's to make sure they were the same. They both said the same thing—Potions, then Herbology, and finally Defense against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. A handsome older boy looked at their schedules then announced, "I'll show you to Potions today, you won't want to be late for Snape's class, he hates us Hufflepuffs. C'mon then, let's go, I've got class, too."

The first years all looked at each other anxiously, then shoved the remainder of their breakfasts aside and followed the boy out of the Great Hall. The boy led them through the corridors and down several flights of stairs. As they went along, he pointed out painting and statues that would help guide them to the dungeons again. He told them to be quiet and respectful and not argue with Snape about anything, not matter how unfair it seemed. They soon reached the dungeons, where the boy pointed out the door to the classroom. Just then, a girl passed by, saying as she went, "Better hurry, Cedric, McGonagall will be furious if you're late." Cedric wished them a quick "Good Luck!" and raced off to follow the girl.

The Hufflepuffs stood in a cluster where Cedric had left them, staring anxiously at the door as if they expected something horrible to come out of it. After a moment, Susie sighed with impatience and led the way through the door. However bad this Snape was, he couldn't possibly be worse than Madam Scatcherd. The rest of the students followed her in reluctantly. She looked around the dark dungeon. He wasn't even here. She threw herself in the nearest seat and motioned for Hannah to sit next to her. The Ravenclaws came in groups of two's and three's soon after, and were forced to sit at the front desks, the safer desks in the back of the room having been quickly claimed by the more timid Hufflepuffs. Not long after the last of the Ravenclaws had sat down in the very front desks, Professor Snape strode into the room in a flurry of black robes. He immediately began a 'beginning of the semester' speech which Susie ignored entirely, knowing she would hear it from every professor in every class. She looked around the dungeon at all the peculiar herbs hanging from the ceiling and the strange skeletons and the nastinesses floating in large glass jars. She looked back at the professor, noticing how well his long black hair reflected the torchlight and wondering if he used the slimy stuff in the jars to make it shine like that. She imagined a hair potion like she had seen the older girls at the orphanage using and stifled a giggle. Snape spun around so quickly, she knew he had heard her. She swiftly schooled her features into the proper combination of innocence and confusion, sure to fool any teacher. He barely glanced at her, turning instead to stare at Hannah with animosity in his eyes. Hannah's normally pink face turned so red it was nearly purple, and she looked down at her feet and squirmed.

"Ten points from Hufflepuff for disrupting class!" he barked at her.

Susie stole a glance at Hannah, who seemed to be paralyzed with fear, and guilt swept over her. Hannah shouldn't have to take this! It wasn't her fault and that horrible man just assumed it was!

"It was me!" The words flew from Susie's mouth before she had time to stop them or even consider what she was saying. Snape stared at her, clearly as startled by her words as everyone else was.

"What did you say?" he asked coldly, enunciating every word carefully. Susie considered for a split second, then decided she couldn't back down now. She couldn't let him win.

"It was me. I lau—I disrupted class," she said with quiet determination, forcing herself to look into his cold black eyes.

"Twenty points from Hufflepuff for your insolence, and be grateful it isn't more," he snarled at her.

Susie summoned all her courage. "Aren't you going to give Hannah's points back?" she asked indignantly. All her efforts would be in vain if he didn't give the points back to Hannah.

It had been a mistake to ask him. "Twenty more points and a detention, for daring to question me." Fifty points lost! And a detention, too! She hated him, oh, how she hated him! How could she ever have compared him to Madam Scatcherd! He made the matron look like a saint! He watched her for a moment with satisfaction, then turned away and began to explain the potion they would be making today. Hannah reached under the table and squeezed her hand in gratitude and sympathy. Suddenly the points and the detention didn't matter. She had a friend, a real friend. She wouldn't let him take any more points off her or Hannah today. She forced herself to listen closely to his instructions on how to make a potion to cure boils. When he was done explaining, she pulled out Hannah's cauldron and ingredients. There was no way she would let him see her own dented cauldron or let him know she didn't have half the ingredients needed for the potion.

"Here" she whispered, and shoved shrivelfig roots over at Hannah. "Cut these into one centimeter cubes. Carefully." Hannah, still in shock, began slowly cutting the wrinkly brown roots. Too slowly. They would never finish at this pace. "Why don't you stir?" and she pulled the roots away from Hannah and handed her the spoon. She measured and minced and diced with more care and precision than she had ever used before, stopping periodically to adjust Hannah's stirring. At the end of class, Snape headed straight for their cauldron, as Susie had been certain he would. Fortunately, it looked perfect, according to their textbook at least. Susie stared up at him defiantly as he tested their potion, trying to fake a courage she didn't feel. When he was finished, he sneered at her, but swept away without saying a word, dismissing the class with a wave of his hand. Susie felt weak with relief. She and Hannah cleaned up their mess as swiftly and quietly as possible and left the classroom and headed outdoors. It was a relief to leave the dungeons and go outside to the greenhouses, where the bright September sunshine chased away the horrors of her first Potions class.

A/N: Many thanks to Aristyar, without whom this fic would have never gotten beyond this chapter.

Chapter Three will be up in a few days, no promises on Chapter Four


	3. Detention

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own any part of this story, except for Emma. She's not really worth having anyhow, she's rather dense. It's all JK Rowling's. Lucky her.

A/N: Again—Thanks to Aristyar, because I wouldn't have made it to this chapter without you and to Jade—because you nitpicked it J 

Chapter Three: The Detention

The greenhouse smelled of warm, dark earth and growing things. Susie inhaled the familiar scent with pleasure. For one brief moment, she was at home in the garden, helping Grandmum get ready for spring. Even sharing this class with the Gryffindors, including Harry Potter, couldn't dampen her spirits. Her Grandmum had always told her a house without a garden was no proper home. The orphanage didn't have a garden. She remembered her Grandmum's flowers. They had always seemed to be smiling cheerfully at her. Working with the soil and the tender green plants was one of the things she had missed most at the Orphanage.

Professor Sprout, Susie's Head of House, set them to work cutting blossoms off of calendula plants and plucking the petals off, which would be used to make a potion for rashes. It was work Susie might have done when she was much smaller, but it was so good to be working with plants that she didn't really care. The Hufflepuffs, she noted with satisfaction, were doing a much nicer than the Gryffindors.

Maybe she would ask Professor Sprout if she could have some space in the greenhouse so she could grow anything she wanted. But the professor probably wouldn't agree once she heard how many points Susie had lost in her first Potions class, Susie thought glumly. Even the other Hufflepuffs seemed rather cold towards her.

It wasn't like it was her fault. If Professor Snape hadn't picked on Hannah, she wouldn't have answered back. But then, she probably shouldn't have laughed while he was speaking. She quickly pushed the thought from her mind. It wasn't her fault, even if she did laugh. The class ended all too soon and she and Hannah headed into the castle for lunch.

The far end of the Hufflepuff table was uncannily quiet that afternoon. If Susie had had any doubt about whether or not the other first-years were upset, it was gone now. Indignant anger filled her and she might have left the table if it weren't for Hannah's valiant attempts at starting a conversation about their last class. Only their dorm mate, Emma Rivers, who wasn't entirely sure what was going on, responded. The conversation died out quickly. The older students couldn't help but notice the silence at that part of the table and after a few moments, one of them asked what was going on. Susie glanced up guiltily and saw it was the boy who had shown them to Potions that morning. Ernie MacMillan, already known as a talebearer, told him all about it, making it sound as though Susie had deliberately lost the points.

But Cedric just grinned, and told Susie, "Good for you, standing up to Snape. And don't worry about the points, we'll get them back in no time."

"I've got a detention, too," Susie told him quietly.

"Don't worry about it," Cedric advised. "There's not too much he can do. You can't really prepare potions ingredients yet, so you'll probably just be cleaning something."

Susie immediately felt better about the whole ordeal. Even the other first-years seemed reassured, and they began to discuss the astounding variety of plants they had seen in the greenhouse until it was time for their next class.

The Defense against the Dark Arts professor looked as though he could use a few lessons in the subject himself. Stammering and stuttering through the role call and the introduction, he gave the impression of being afraid of the students themselves. Susie quickly lost interest in him and everything he was saying and occupied herself by drawing small caricatures of the professors on her parchment. She elbowed Hannah, who was studiously taking notes, to look at her doodling. Hannah smiled, but then told her to pay attention and take notes.

"What's the point?" Susie whispered to Hannah. "He's just saying the same things over and over." Susie gave a very good imitation of Quirrel's stuttering.

"Just do it!" Hannah whispered back, appalled at Susie's lack of respect. "You're in class and you should take notes!"

Susie was in too good a mood from lunch to protest, and good-naturedly scribbled down a few notes before resuming her drawing, this time not showing her masterpieces to the unappreciative Hannah.

In Transfiguration, it quickly became apparent that there would be no doodling on her parchment during class. Professor McGonagall bombarded them with information so quickly that Susie's hand ached with trying to keep up. After she had filled three sheets of parchment with notes, McGonagall handed out matches, telling them to Transfigure them into needles. Susie looked at hers doubtfully, but pointed her wand at it and closed her eyes and envisioned a needle, concentrating with all her might. She opened her eyes and looked at it, pleased. It wasn't really a needle, but it wasn't exactly a match anymore, either. It looked rather like a match that had been spray-painted silver, with a very slight point at the end. She inspected Hannah's handiwork. Her match was still very much a match. Susie could see no difference at all. Hannah compared Susie's match with her own and looked upset. Just then Professor McGonagall walked by, inspecting their work.

"Well done, Miss Bones."

"Keep trying, Miss Abbott."

McGonagall looked sharply at Susie's wand, then looked at Susie suspiciously before walking away without a word. Susie was rather confused, and turned to ask Hannah's opinion of this strange behavior. She took one look at her friend's crestfallen face and hastened to reassure her, forgetting all about McGonagall.

"You probably just didn't concentrate hard enough," Susie comforted her. "Think really hard."

Hannah tried again, but her match stayed the same. Susie tried a different tactic.

"Almost no one has really changed theirs. We'll practice tonight and next class

we'll both have perfect needles. Probably there's something in the book that Professor McGonagall forgot to tell us." Hannah looked a little consoled.

Later that night, when Susie and Hannah were working at Transfiguring their matches in a secluded corner of the common room, they overheard two older students talking.

"Did you hear about that first-year that told off Snape?" a girl asked.

The second girl laughed. "She'll be a Prefect yet, if she keeps that up."

The first girl agreed and they went up to their dormitory.

Susie looked at Hannah, stunned. A Prefect. "Do you think it's really possible?" Susie asked in an awed voice.

"Of course it is," Hannah said emphatically. "Aren't you the best first-year at Hogwarts?" Susie grinned and blushed.

"Look, my match!" Hannah squealed. "It's turned all grey!"

~~*~*~*~~

Susie arrived at the Entrance Hall at exactly 7:59. She had borrowed Hannah's watch so she could be sure she was on time. She couldn't afford to lose points by being late, and she certainly didn't want to be early either. Professor Snape had kept her after class that morning to inform her she would be serving her detention with Mr. Filch that night at 8:00.

Susie looked around. The caretaker hadn't come yet, but that foul cat of his, Mrs. Norris, had. She stared at Susie with a look of gloating satisfaction on her small feline face. Susie hated being kept here by a cat. If it weren't for the nasty little furball, she would be able to leave and say Filch didn't show. But the older students had warned her that the cat had an uncanny way of communicating with Filch, and had told her to treat the cat as if she was Filch himself if she wanted to avoid trouble. She had been getting rather a lot of tips like that lately, ever since that first Potions class. 

Mr. Filch didn't come until 8:17 exactly. He smirked at her, then led her to the trophy room, where he told her to polish the trophies by hand.

"_No magic_," he emphasized, as he left the room with an unpleasant sneer on his face. Not that she knew any cleaning charms yet, but still! He left her with cleaning supplies and a warning that if the trophies weren't spotless, she would be doing all of them again tomorrow night.

She looked around her. There were three large glass cases with dusty shelves full of trophies of all shapes and sizes, most of them large and all of them tarnished. With a sigh, she opened the smallest case and pulled a large silver trophy from it and polished it until she could see her own determined face in the reflection. About eight trophies later she heard someone enter the room.

"Hannah!" Susie exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you might want help," she offered. "You'll be here forever if you have to do all these by yourself."

Susie was stunned. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had been so kind to her. She suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable, and highly suspicious. People who were nice to her usually wanted something. But she didn't have anything anyone could possibly want. Her meager possessions were more worn and tattered than everyone else's. Hannah's things were all nice and new. Susie was a bit confused. But there _were_ an awful lot of trophies, and Hannah was right, it would take all night to polish them by herself. "Thanks," she said gratefully, feeling suddenly warm towards Hannah.

Together they scrubbed and polished for hours, until finally, around Midnight, only the trophies on the top shelf of the tallest case were left. Susie looked up at them. They were well above both her and Hannah's heads.

"Just leave them," Hannah told her in a tired voice, her face pale with exhaustion.

"Filch said if they weren't all done, I'd have to do them all again tomorrow," Susie explained to Hannah.

"But he can't possibly expect you to do the ones you can't reach."

"Oh yes, he can," Susie replied, certain he could be that mean. She looked at the case again and was struck with an idea. The shelves were rather ladder-like. Maybe she could… She put her foot on the bottom shelf. It gave a little, but seemed like it would support her small weight. She put her other foot on the shelf above it.

Hannah looked worried. Hesitantly, she began to say, "Susie, I'm not sure…"

"Of course it's a good idea." Susie climbed higher.

The entire case began to tip dangerously.

"Susie, get down!" Hannah screamed.

Susie leapt off the case and scrambled away just in time to watch it fall, seemingly in slow motion. The whole thing reached the stone floor with a deafening crash of shattering glass and cracking wood_._ Susie was too frozen with horror to do anything but lay sprawled on the floor where she had landed. No one in the entire castle could have missed that. A few trophies continued to clang across the uneven floor, seeming to mock her horror with their refusal to be silent.

In no time, Mrs. Norris was there, staring at Susie and the mangled trophy case. Then she ran off at top speed, no doubt to fetch Filch, a look of evil satisfaction in her eyes.

Susie looked at Hannah in despair. Her face was a mottled red and white and her mouth gaped open as she stared at the wreck that used to be the trophy case. Susie turned her wand around and around in her cold, sweaty hands. She would be expelled. She would have to go back to the orphanage. Hannah would be expelled. She would lose her only friend. Someone would come any moment now and find them here, staring stupidly at the remains of the case and that would be it. There was nothing else for it. They were going to be expelled.

The last trophy fell from the case with a clatter, snapping Susie out of her desperate musings. She had to do something. Anything.

She aimed her wand at the devastation in front of her. "Be fixed!" she screamed at it, losing her head completely.

For a moment, nothing happened, then suddenly, the case flew back together, the splinters forming whole wood and the shards of glass melting together to form complete panes of glass. Even the trophies rolled backwards across the floor and flew onto the shelves. Susie stared at it, even more shocked than when the case had fallen. This was just her imagination. She was dreaming. It was wishful thinking, only an illusion.

Rapid footsteps outside the room jerked her from her reverie and goaded her into action. She did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed a rag and a trophy and started rubbing it as if her life depended on it. But Hannah was still standing there in shock! Susie ran over and gave her a hard shove towards a nearby tapestry. Hannah gave a small cry, then ran and hid behind it just as Filch came running into the room, wheezing loudly. He looked around.

"What was that noise?" he demanded.

Susie tried to look innocent, but she wasn't sure she was succeeding. She certainly wasn't thinking properly, for she answered stupidly, "Wh—what noise?"

"Don't be an idiot! You couldn't have missed it! You know what it was! You made that noise! I'll give you detention for the rest of your life!"

Susie considered a moment. He was right, no one could have _not_ heard it. Finally she replied, "I – I think it came from upstairs."

Filch clearly didn't believe her, for he began prowling the room, looking in every nook and cranny for damage. He came dangerously near the tapestry where Hannah was hiding, but fortunately didn't seem interested in it. He completed his inspection of the room without finding anything. He narrowed his eyes, giving Susie a nasty look. However he stalked from the room without saying anything, clearly angry and disappointed. Susie collapsed onto the floor, suddenly very tired. Hannah slowly came out from behind the tapestry.

"Susie…what…what was that? What did you do?" she asked hesitantly.

"I don't know. I just don't know. It really did break…didn't it?"

"Yeah," Hannah told her softly. "And then you…"

"Yeah," said Susie quietly, frightened by what she had just done. "Look… let's just… go."

"All right," Hannah agreed gently. They returned to their dorm in total silence, the remaining unpolished trophies completely forgotten.

~~*~*~*~*~~

****

Susie and Hannah reached their dorm without coming across anyone, not even a ghost. The castle had been eerily quiet during their long walk back. When they reached the dorm, Susie immediately changed into her thin nightdress and collapsed into bed, ready to join Megan and Emma in sleep. Her mind was a tangle of confused thoughts, and she was far too exhausted to sort them out. The trophy room disaster could wait. She desperately needed to rest.

But Hannah had other ideas. Also in her nightdress, she plopped down on the end of Susie's bed.

"Susie," she whispered insistently. "What was that? What did you do?" She no longer seemed shocked or frightened, only very curious and strangely urgent.

"I told you, Hannah, I don't know," Susie replied impatiently, and she shifted so that her back was to Hannah. Hannah, however, was not so easily deterred.

"Is it common, do you think? Being able to do stuff like that, I mean."

"It was probably just a spell we haven't learned yet," Susie said in a dismissive tone.

"No, I don't think so," Hannah told her seriously. "I know we haven't learned many spells yet, but they all seem to be in Greek or Latin or whatever. 'Be fixed' doesn't sound like any spell I ever heard."

Susie ignored her, shutting her eyes and pretending to sleep. She knew Hannah was right, and it both frightened and exhilarated her at the same time, though right now the fear was winning. In her mind, she saw the trophy case fly back together again, and she squinched her eyes shut tight, as if that could drive the image from her mind.

Hannah inhaled deeply, as if summoning her courage. "I really think you should try it again."

"What, sneak down to the trophy room and knock over the case again?" Susie knew her voice was full of biting sarcasm, but she was too tired and sleepy to care. "Great idea, Hannah, I'll get my cloak. It's great fun climbing up shelves and pulling them over and nearly getting expelled."

"No, Susie, don't be silly, _please_," Hannah pleaded. "I think this is really important."

Susie considered this for a moment. "I dunno, maybe," she said uncertainly, though she was secretly hoping Hannah was right. _If it were true, I could do anything_, she realized, growing more excited. _I bet Harry Potter couldn't do it_, she thought with gleeful spite.

"I think you ought to try it again," Hannah repeated.

"Quiet, Hannah! Let me think!"

She felt the bed shift and heard Hannah walk away. Susie felt a bit sorry to be so rude, but Hannah just didn't understand how important this might be! A moment later, there was a sound of shattering glass right next to her bed. She bolted upright.

"Hannah!" she gasped, startled. Hannah stood there looking oddly satisfied. Susie looked down at the floor. The remains of a glass inkwell lay at Hannah's feet, the shards of glass glittering strangely in the moonlight. Splatters of black ink covered the side of Susie's bed and there was a puddle of darkness rapidly spreading in all directions.

"What on Earth did you do that for?" Susie asked, irritated and confused. "I hope you're going to clean that up! We can't afford to be in anymore trouble. You almost woke the others!"

"But I didn't. Go ahead. Fix it," Hannah told her.

Susie stared at her for a moment with growing respect, she hadn't really thought Hannah capable of doing anything so…so _daring_.

Susie took her wand from the bedside table reluctantly and ordered the mess flatly to "Be fixed!" 

Nothing happened. Susie and Hannah stared at the shattered inkwell and the growing pool of ink on the floor in strange mixture of relief and disappointment.

"Try harder, Susie. Remember what you told me about the matchstick? You just have to think harder," Hannah encouraged her. Susie closed her eyes and concentrated with all her might on a whole inkwell. She pointed her wand at the mess and cried as loud as she dared, "Be fixed!"

When she opened her eyes and looked, the inkwell sat on the floor, as if it had never been broken. Susie was filled with wonder as marvelous ideas flew through her head. What if this worked on everything? She had fixed the trophy case after all, and that was much larger than an inkwell. She could break and fix anything she wanted. She'd never get in trouble.

They tried it several more times, and it got to where she could fix it easily on the first try.

"What else can I break? I think I need to practice on something bigger to really be sure." Susie said, looking around the moonlit dorm.

Hannah looked alarmed at Susie's new train of thought.

"There's really not much to break in here," Susie told Hannah, disappointed.

The large grandfather clock in the corner struck one. "Let's just go to bed," Hannah suggested, clearly relieved by the sad lack of fragile objects. "We can practice more tomorrow."

But Susie had another idea. She headed for the clock and began pushing on it.

"Susie, don't!" Hannah cried.

"Why ever not?" Susie asked, annoyed at the interruption. "I can fix it."

"What if you can't?" Hannah pleaded.

"But I _can_. C'mon, help me push it over, it's really heavy!"

Hannah stayed where she was, desperately casting her mind about for reasons why Susie shouldn't break the clock.

"Those things are really complicated, they're hard to put back together!"

"The trophy case was complicated and it went back together okay," Susie said complacently, though secretly wondering if Hannah might be right. The clock wobbled forward a bit.

"You'll wake the others!" Hannah warned.

"I'll have it fixed before they ever realize what happened," Susie replied, a little more worried this time, but not willing to give in. The clock was definitely tipping over.

Hannah looked franticly about the room for something, anything that would help her. She saw Susie's tattered spellbooks lying carelessly in a heap on the desk across from Susie's bed. "Don't you want to see if you can do other stuff?"

"Like what?" Susie asked, grateful for the excuse. She had been beginning to think maybe the clock wasn't such a great idea after all. She let go of the clock, and it fell back into place with a gentle _thud._

"Like…like your books. Don't you want to fix them first?"

She ran over and grabbed the top one and carried it over to the bed and sat down. Suddenly she felt exhausted, but she was determined to repair her books as best she could. Then she would be as good as everyone else. She had to fix them, she just had to.

Susie focused on "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection." It looked rather as if the book itself had been used as some sort of protection. Most of the front part of the book was missing and there were dark stains on some of the pages which Susie liked to tell Emma were blood.

She concentrated hard on Hannah's brand new copy of the book, and used the same spell that had worked so well before.

She opened her eyes and inspected the book. It looked almost exactly as it had before. If anything, it appeared slightly worse. Why wasn't it working? She tried again, with no success.

Susie felt her eyes prick with tears and she dropped down onto her pillow so that Hannah wouldn't see her cry. She was _so_ exhausted and _so_ disappointed. She knew it was silly, she knew it wasn't worth crying over, but it didn't matter, and she began to cry in earnest at the thought of her own stupidity. Hannah rushed over and held her close, rubbing her back and murmuring comfort. Susie felt herself fall apart completely, crying all the tears she had so carefully held back for so many years. Tears for her dead grandparents, for the parents she had never known, for the loneliness of the orphanage, for the cruelty of Madam Scatcherd, Professor Snape and Filch and everyone else who had ever been mean to her. She cried until she had no tears left, and fell into a dreamless sleep.


	4. Troll!

Disclaimer: As usual, none of this is mine.

A/N: I can't thank Aristyar and Jade enough, so here are my thanks again.

It was Halloween morning and Susie and Hannah were discussing the previous night's clandestine practice session in hushed voices, their conversation covered by the noisy chatter of their classmates.

"Can't we just sleep tonight?" Hannah asked with a gaping yawn. Susie's enthusiasm had kept them up very late last night.

"No. I need to work on my Transfiguration again. I'm still having a lot of trouble with that. Stuff never comes out quite right."

"No kidding. That poor rat. Maybe you oughtn't work on live animals anymore. You still don't have Transfiguring furniture completely down, and animals are much harder."

"It was such a good opportunity, I just had to try. It's not every night that rats just wander in. But you're probably right," Susie conceded. "I got it back to a rat in the end, though. All except that one finger, but I think that might have been missing already." She looked at the palm of her hand, which had a long red welt across it where she had held her wand.

Hannah looked at the welt with a frown. It wasn't the first time the wand had grown hot as they were practicing, but it was the first time it had marked Susie. Oddly enough, the wand never felt warm to Hannah at all, even though Susie had insisted it was red hot.

"Well it won't wander in again, that's for sure," Hannah said, deciding not to start up the ongoing argument about the dangers of what Susie was doing and whether they should tell someone. "You're still very good at fixing things, though. Your cauldron looks new, and so do your books."

"And I don't have any trouble repairing those dishes we… borrowed. But I still can't make my robes nice." She looked at the frayed edge of her sleeve and sighed.

"Maybe taking a break from Transfiguration would help. We've done so much of that lately. We ought to work on Charms now. You haven't had as much practice with that."

"Charms are boring."

"Boring or not, you still need to work on them if you want to be well rounded," Hannah told Susie in a preachy voice. "We can take a break tonight and start again tomorrow night or the night after."

Susie was about to argue back when a flood of owls, each bearing a package or a letter, came soaring into the Great Hall, cutting their discussion short. There were more owls this morning than Susie had ever seen in the Great Hall before. The girls had known Halloween was a big holiday in the magical world by the decorations in the Hall and the Common Room, but clearly it was also a day for gifts and letters as well.

Hannah looked up eagerly, and Susie followed her gaze. She knew Hannah was anxiously awaiting a letter from her parents. Susie didn't think Hannah would be more likely to receive word from them today more than any other day, since Halloween was just a children's holiday in the Muggle world. She turned to point this out, but when she saw the look of hopeful expectation on Hannah's face, she remained quiet.

They watched silently as each owl swooped down to an excited student and flew off again. Finally, the last owl, a battered old grey one, nearly fell into its owner's plate at the Gryffindor table, and the ceiling was clear. Hannah looked crushed.

"I thought maybe…" Hannah began brokenly, her voice trailing off.

Megan, who was sitting across from them, gave a squeal. "A new set of Gobstones!" she cried, showing them to her friend Justin.

Hannah looked as though she might cry.

"I'm sure they'll write soon," Susie tried to console her.

"I've written them every week and told the owl to wait for a letter back! It's been two months, Susie! Two months! They're just not going to write! They never wanted me to come here, so they're not going to write!"

Susie was alarmed. Hannah was the steady one. Hannah was supposed to be calm and reasonable, and now she was neither.

"Maybe they just don't know how to use owl post," Susie suggested hastily, trying to console Hannah before she could get any more agitated. "Maybe that's all it is. Maybe they want to write you and they don't know how!"

"Do you really think so?" Hannah asked uncertainly.

"Of course. That's exactly it." Susie felt more confident as Hannah grew calmer. "That's all it is. They really do want to write you, I'm sure of it."

"What do you think I ought to do?"

Susie considered for a moment. "We'll ask Professor Sprout. She'll know what to do. Maybe someone could go and show them!"

"Like that witch who came with my letter?"

"Exactly!" Susie said happily, very relieved that Hannah was back to normal.

~~*~*~*~~

"TROLL!" someone howled from the far end of the Great Hall during the Halloween feast later that night. Susie and Hannah, like everyone else in the Hall, spun around in time to watch Professor Quirrel run up the main aisle in a panic. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" he screamed again. "Thought you ought to know," he finished in an oddly calm voice as he collapsed onto the floor.

There was a second of shocked silence, and then mass hysteria filled the Hall. People began screaming and tripping over each other as they tried to flee the Great Hall.

Susie grabbed Hannah's arm and dragged her out of her chair and into the mob clogging the aisles, her only thought to get away from the troll. The fact that she was heading away from the one place where she knew the troll wasn't, and that she wouldn't recognize a troll if it stood in front of her, never occurred to her. She simply followed the hysterical crowd, their panic sweeping away all her wits.

Explosions from the head table finally brought silence over the hall. Professor Dumbledore's voice, forceful and calm, rang out. He instructed the Prefects to lead the students back to their dormitories. Relief swept over the Hall as order was restored, and Prefects began calling out to gather their housemates. Susie and Hannah fell into line behind some fifth years, who were fervently insisting to each other and anyone who would listen that they hadn't been scared. Hannah grabbed Emma, who had been slowly drifting towards a group of Slytherins, and pulled her line next to her and they set off for their Common Room.

Walking slowly through the stone corridors, students strained their necks, peering down empty corridors hoping or fearing to see the troll. Occasionally someone would call out 'There it is!' only to be proven wrong and shushed by a Prefect. Walking unseen among the tall fifth years, Susie tried in vain to look for the troll between the students walking around them. Their shield of older students seemed to comfort Hannah, but was frustrating Susie, who wanted very much to see the troll. She drifted to the outside of the crowd, pulling Hannah with her.

When they passed a large statue Susie seized her opportunity. She ducked behind it, pulling Hannah with her (a Prefect had taken Emma up front with her earlier).

"Susie!" Hannah hissed. "What are you _doing_?!" She tried to duck out from behind the statue and rejoin the others, but Susie pulled her back.

"I want to see the troll!" Susie explained impatiently, peering around the base of the statue.

"No! We are _not_ going to wait here and try to see the troll!"

"Of _course_ we aren't! We'll have to go find it! It might not pass this way!"

"Trolls are really dangerous! C'mon, Susie if we hurry we can catch up to the others!" Hannah pleaded.

"I just want to see it! It'll never notice us!"

Hannah lost her temper at this blatant lie. She stamped her foot and snapped, "You don't just want to see it! I know you! You want to try to kill it!"

"So what if I do! I've been practicing! I can do big stuff now!"

She came out from behind the statue and watched the other Hufflepuffs retreat towards the safety of the Common Room.

"Books and dishes and furniture are _not _big!" Hannah protested as Susie hauled her out from her hiding place.

"Well it's the biggest stuff we could find! I _need_ to find the troll so I can practice on it!" Susie told her as she jogged off towards the dungeons.

"What exactly are you planning on doing to this troll, _if_ we should find it?" Hannah asked in a resigned sort of way, running after Susie.

"I'll transfigure it!" Susie told her cheerfully as she ran down a staircase.

"Into what?" Hannah gasped, trying to keep up.

"I dunno… anything," Susie said, unconcerned about this.

A foul stench hit them at the bottom of the stairs and they knew they had found the troll. It shuffled down the corridor in front of them, dragging a huge wooden club along the ground with a horrible scraping sound. The thing was at least twice as tall as Susie was. It was huge, grey, and looked stupid and slow even from the back. Susie stood there staring at it as Hannah caught up to her.

Susie gathered her courage and began cautiously following it. Hannah trailed after her slowly, looking frightened.

"Susie, this is a really bad idea. Remember the rat?" Hannah whispered furiously.

"Shhh!"

Susie crept after it stealthily. As she got nearer, she began to think that Hannah might be right, maybe it wasn't such a brilliant idea after all. _No!_ Susie thought, gathering her courage._ I have to do this! Then they'll see. Then they'll know I'm important!_

The troll stopped where three corridors intersected, it was clearly confused. _It's now or never,_ Susie realised, ignoring the stinging of the welt across her right hand and the warmth emanating from her pocket. She crept closer. Susie pulled out her wand with her left hand. It felt dangerously hot, not unlike how it had felt last night. It slipped from her hand and dropped to the floor with a wooden clatter. The troll turned around, looking around stupidly as it searched for the source of the sound. Any second now, it would spot Susie, who stood frozen with fear.

Hannah sprang into action. She ran forward and snatched Susie's wand off the floor, then tugged Susie into a nearby classroom and slammed the door shut.

The noise attracted the troll immediately. They heard it lumbering back and forth searching for them. They stood with their backs bracing the door, hoping vainly that their small strength could stop the troll from opening it.

They heard it banging on the wall. The banging sound came closer and closer, and Susie and Hannah stared at each other in horror.

"BANG!"

The door burst open and Susie and Hannah flew forward. They lay prone on the floor, waiting for the troll to crush them.

But the troll continued down the hall, banging its club on the wall as it went along. They lay still for a moment, scarcely able to believe their good fortune. Then Susie pulled herself to her feet and crept over to the doorway, listening to the sound of the troll retreating. Hannah came over and stood next to her.

"Do you think it's safe now?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

Susie had lost all desire to try out her new gift on the troll, and could now understand why everyone had panicked in the Great Hall. Clearly, trolls were not to be trifled with. They left the empty classroom and crept off in the direction opposite the one the troll had taken, taking the long way back to the Common Room.

They arrived long after everyone else had, but no one had noticed them missing.

Emma saw them come in and approached them. "Where were you?" she asked. "We got here ages ago."

"We got lost," Susie lied impatiently.

"Oh. Everyone's upset," Emma informed them. Even she couldn't miss the ruckus in the Common Room as everyone tried to tell all the others their theories about how the troll got in, its current location, the likelihood of it reaching their Common Room, and what they would do if they were to meet it. "Are they upset because you got lost?"

"They're upset because there's a troll loose in the castle," Hannah explained patiently.

"Oh…is the troll lost, too?" Emma asked hopefully

"Sort of," Susie told her hastily, dragging Hannah away before she could get involved in a long and unsuccessful explanation. She was too angry and frustrated to put up with Emma tonight.

~~*~*~*~~

The next morning in the Great Hall, Ernie MacMillan took great pleasure in telling everyone how Harry Potter had defeated the troll single-handed. Susie felt her breakfast turn to lead in her stomach.

__

Harry Potter! Why am I not surprised? He's always showing off! It should have been me who beat the troll. _It would have been me except that Hannah stopped me just when I was about to do it_, Susie thought stubbornly, deliberately ignoring the fact that she had been too scared to do anything but stand there. _It's all Hannah's fault!_

She turned to give Hannah a nasty look. She got even angrier when she saw that Hannah was listening eagerly to Ernie. Susie kicked Hannah rather hard in the shin to get her attention.

"Hannah! Don't believe him! That git couldn't beat a pixie, let alone a troll!"

"Don't kick me!" Hannah retorted. "And he _did_ beat the troll! Look at the hourglasses! He got five points for it!"

"Anyone could've gotten five points yesterday!" Susie pointed out angrily.

"You're just sore because you couldn't do it!" Hannah hissed at her, turning back to listen to Ernie.

"I could _too_ have done it! You just pulled me away too soon!" Susie insisted. Hannah ignored her.

"Well, I could have," Susie muttered sullenly, shooting Hannah a dirty look.

Susie sat back in her chair and seethed, thinking horrible thoughts about all the spiteful things that she could do to Harry Potter, Ernie, and even Hannah. She knew she would never do them, but it felt good to think about them all the same. No, she concluded, transfiguring them into something small and slimy with many legs definitely wouldn't work. She'd have to think of a different way to make them see that she was more special than Harry Potter. She needed something she could do so that _everyone_ would know she was powerful and important. She needed a plan.


	5. Burned

Disclaimer: All of this belongs to JK Rowling. I'm not making any money off of it and no infringement is intended.

Chapter Five: Burned

Early autumn snow covered Hogwarts in a white blanket. The peaceful scene outside contrasted sharply with the fight going on inside Susie and Hannah's dorm.

"I won't!" Susie shouted.

"You've got to, Susie," Hannah begged, almost in tears. "You've just got to! It's getting worse! Look at your hand!" She pointed at Susie's right hand, which was clumsily wrapped in strips torn off of Susie's nightdress. Putrid yellow fluid seeped through the makeshift bandages.

"My hand always heals!" Susie countered, more softly this time. "Look Hannah, I know what you're saying. But, if I tell someone, they'll stop me. I don't want to stop! I can't stop! Not now! Not when I've come so far and learned so much!"

"You _are_ learning, Susie, but the more you try to do, the worse you get hurt! That's the third burn like that this month, and it's the worst yet! You're already trying to do stuff the 3rd and 4th years are learning! It's too much!"

Susie unwrapped the bandages and inspected her wound-- a long narrow burn with a white crust, weeping a clear yellowish liquid. Susie knew from experience it would fade to a dark scar in a few days. Hannah peered at it.

"You could at least see Madam Pomfrey. She could mend it, and I don't think she'd tell anyone."

"Don't you think she'd be just a little suspicious, me coming in with a burn like this week after week?"

"Yeah," Hannah agreed softly. "You're probably right."

Susie thought for a moment, staring at the burn as if mesmerised. "I'll have to heal it myself," she concluded.

"You've tried that before and it's never worked! Please tell someone, Susie, please! Professor Sprout or even Professor Dumbledore! Anyone! Those burns are getting worse and worse and what you're doing is really scaring me!"

"I told you, they'll stop me. I'll just have to get a book on healing and find a real spell, not one I made up."

Hannah looked uncomfortable. "It's not just the burns, Susie, and you know it! It's dangerous, what you're doing, really dangerous! I mean, nobody else's wand seems to burn them. My wand doesn't burn me. The stuff you're doing. It's... it's not going so well lately. Transfiguration is, well, sometimes it... goes wrong...really wrong. And Charms-- those almost never work, sometimes they really get out of control. That's why you ought to tell someone. You could really get hurt, and I'm not just talking about the burns."

Susie began picking at the edge of the crust on her burn.

"Susie. Susie, listen to me! If you don't tell, then- then I will," she threatened shakily.

"You can't tell!" Susie shrieked, panicking at Hannah's threat. "You don't understand how important this is! I'll get a book, I'll learn a real spell for healing burns, and I won't do big stuff anymore. But you can't tell!"

"Do you promise? Do you really promise?"

Susie was silent for moment. "Yeah, I promise," she told Hannah sullenly. She had to promise. She was pretty sure Hannah would never tell, but if she did, everything would be ruined. Hannah didn't know about Susie's plan, the real reason putting up with burns and driving herself so hard. Susie knew Hannah would try to stop her, or if she couldn't stop her, she would tell someone. Susie would've told Hannah, except that she just wouldn't understand how important it was to her.

Hannah smiled, pleased and surprised that Susie had agreed so quickly. She grabbed a clean strip of nightdress material out of Susie's trunk and began winding it carefully around the injured palm.

~~*~*~*~~

Hannah diligently scoured the library shelves, searching for a book on healing, while Susie looked for one on the shelves opposite her. Hannah could tell Susie wasn't really searching, just sort of wandering around looking busy. Hannah sighed. If she didn't find one in her section, she'd have to search Susie's too. She decided it wasn't worth starting a fight over and turned back to her shelf.

Hannah had asked Madam Pince about books on healing spells, telling her she wanted them for an essay for Professor Binns. There were shelves full of books on the history of magical medicine, but none that looked like they might contain an actual spell.

"Not finding anything?" Madam Pince asked. She had been giving Hannah and Susie suspicious looks for the past quarter of an hour now.

"Err...I was kind of looking for books that might have, well, actual spells in them." Now she'd done it. Madam Pince would know something was wrong. But there wasn't any other way, she certainly wasn't finding what she needed here.

As Hannah had thought would happen, Madam Pince immediately looked even more suspicious. "Those books aren't available to students," she told Hannah sharply, looking her up and down for any sign of injury. Hannah took a step back. It took all her willpower not to look to see if Susie's bandaged hand was sufficiently covered.

"Oh. Okay. Of course." Hannah walked away quickly, pulling a book of a nearby shelf as she passed it. "This one will do, thanks." She went and sat down at a table, hoping she had sufficiently allayed Madam Pince's suspicions.

Susie joined her after a moment. "What did you find?" she asked, looking at the thick brown tome Hannah had in front of her.

"I dunno." Hannah picked the book up. There was no title. Curious, she leafed through it quickly. It didn't look as though it had anything useful in it.

"Just some old book," she concluded. "Susie, Madam Pince said the books with the healing spells aren't available to students. What are we going to do now?"

Susie pulled back her sleeve and looked at her bandaged hand, concerned. "They're either in the Restricted Section or the Hospital Wing."

"But we can't get to either of those places."

"I don't think we're allowed to practice strange magic in empty classrooms in the dead of night either, but we do. We have to find those books. I don't think this burn's healing like it should."

"When do you want to go?" Hannah asked, resigned. She knew Susie was right but that didn't make rule breaking any less stressful.

Susie looked at her hand again. "Tonight."

~~*~*~*~~

The only sound in the dorm that night was Megan's soft breathing and Emma's snores. Susie wondered if Hannah was still awake. She listened to Megan's breathing and decided she was probably asleep. She climbed out of bed, and pulling her cloak over her nightdress, she tiptoed over to Hannah's bed and quietly pulled back the hangings. Hannah was sitting up, her arms wrapped around her knees, pulling them up to her chest. She looked nervous, but determined. The moonlight streaming in gave her face an eerie, ghost like quality.

Susie beckoned Hannah to follow her. Hannah reached for her own cloak and wrapped it around her as she stepped down from the bed.

"Ouch!" she squealed suddenly, hopping up and down on one foot and clutching the other.

"Wha-" Megan murmured from the next bed.

Susie glared at Hannah then whispered to Megan, "Just go back to sleep. It wasn't anything."

Megan rolled over and after a few suspenseful moments, her breathing grew soft and even again.

"What did you do?" Susie demanded of Hannah in a furious whisper.

"I stubbed my toe on that book I got yesterday. You know, that big brown one."

"Why did you check that one out? We don't need it."

"I had to or else Madam Pince would be suspicious."

Susie rolled her eyes and shoved the offending book under Hannah's bed. "Let's go."

Hannah followed her out of the dorm and through the common room into the hall.

"Where are we going first?" Hannah asked, peering down the dark corridor for any sign of activity.

"I think the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey'll probably have medical books, and we can filch some bandages while we're there, too." She looked down at her nightdress, which was now up to the middle of her calf, the bottom of it having been made into bandages.

Susie whispered 'light up' to her wand, one of the few Charms she had mastered, and it gave a gentle, unobtrusive glow and became comfortingly warm.

The trip to the Hospital Wing was uneventful. They came across Peeves the Poltergeist, but he was busy emptying rubbish bins into a suit of armour, and Susie was fairly certain he hadn't noticed them. She had spent many hours perfecting a sort of Concealment Charm similar to one she had seen the 5th years studying. They had used Emma to test the effectiveness of the charm. Fortunately she didn't seem to find anything odd that Hannah repeatedly asked if she knew where Susie was. It seemed to work quite well as long as you didn't draw attention to yourself and no one was actively searching for you, although Susie wasn't sure how effective it would be on a ghost. Practising the charm had given Susie many painful sores on the palm of her hand, but even Hannah had admitted it had been worth it to be able to roam the corridors without fear of being caught.

Fortunately, the Hospital Wing was empty, the narrow white beds lining the walls neatly made and ready for patients. Susie and Hannah passed between the rows of beds cautiously.

Madam Pomfrey's office was at the far end of the Wing. It was a tall circular room with bookshelves lining the top half, accessible by a set of stairs and a sort of balcony. The lower half of the room was largely taken up by a desk and shelves of what Susie hoped were supplies.

"You go find a book and I'll look for bandages," Susie whispered.

"But I don't have a light, I won't be able to see!"

Susie hadn't thought of this. "Do you have your wand?"

Hannah handed it to her. Susie took it and whispered 'light up.'

The wand stayed dark. Susie ordered the wand to light up again, this time more forcefully and concentrating hard. It remained the same.

Susie was puzzled. "There must be something wrong with your wand," she decided, handing the wand back to her.

Hannah inspected it doubtfully. "I don't know what the matter is. At any rate, we don't have time to find out right now. Is there another light somewhere?"

Susie spotted a small lantern on a hook by the door. She lifted it down and lit it with a few sparks from her wand and handed it to Hannah, who took it and began climbing the stairs up to the bookcases.

After a few moments of quiet rummaging, Susie found rolls of bandages neatly stacked on a shelf. She took some from the back and stashed them in the pockets of her cloak. After all, there was no guarantee that they could work a burn-healing spell, and Susie didn't intend to let that stop her from practicing.

"Did you find anything, Hannah?" she whispered as loudly as she dared.

"Almost."

Susie occupied herself by looking around some more, and found some gauze and bandage tape. She placed these on the desk for Hannah to take, as her own pockets were already bulging.

In dim light of her wand, she saw Hannah struggle down the staircase, holding several heavy books and the lantern. She shifted them around awkwardly to show to Susie. She had found _A Comprehensive Guide to Magical Healing_, _The Treatment of Magical Wounds_, and _The Dangers of Dragons: Bites and Burns_.

"Dragons?" Susie asked, incredulous. "Why did you get that?"

"Well it was all I could find that looked like it might have a lot on burns."

Susie was skeptical, but if Hannah wanted to lug around useless books, that was her business. She offered Hannah the gauze and tape.

"How do expect me to carry that? _You_ could take some stuff from _me_!"

"Oh. Right." Susie took the lantern and _The Treatment of Magical Wounds_ and set them on the desk next to the gauze and tape.

"Find them, my sweet, sniff them out!" a raspy voice suddenly called out from the adjacent room. "They're here somewhere, find them out!"

It was Filch! That foul Peeves must have warned him! He was slowly making his way towards the office, pausing to look under beds and behind the dividers. Susie knew she had to act fast. She cast a makeshift Silencing Charm over herself and Hannah, not knowing if it would work and fervently wishing she had practised her Charm work more. Then she crawled on her belly out of the office and underneath the nearest bed. She heard Hannah follow her, and knew her Silencing Charm hadn't worked. She hid herself as best she could, depending heavily on the darkness and grateful for the clouds that had covered the moon. She wasn't sure the Concealment Charm would still work, since Filch was looking for them. He passed into the office without noticing them, and Susie let out a nearly silent sigh of relief. She quietly wriggled into a more comfortable position and lay still, waiting for Filch to leave.

"Aha! I've got them now, my sweet! Evidence! They've left their evidence on the desk! Careless, careless!"

Horror struck, Susie remembered that she had left a book and medical supplies on the desk. She heard Hannah gasp.

Mrs. Norris heard the sound too and bolted over to them. She stared at Susie with a look of satisfaction on her face and then began to mew maliciously. Desperate, Susie pulled out her wand and pointed it at the cat.

"Go away!" she whispered furiously. "Go away!"

Mrs. Norris sat down.

"Go away before I Transfigure you like I did that rat!"

To Susie's very great surprise, the cat turned tail and ran as if for dear life, screeching madly. Filch chased after her, his footsteps falling rapidly across the flagstones.

When the sound of footsteps died, Susie wriggled out from under the bed and motioned for Hannah to follow her. They crept back to their dorm using far more caution than usual.

They ran across Peeves again on the way, and from the way he sneered at them, Susie knew it had been him who had alerted Filch. She decided angrily that she would use him next time she needed someone to practice on. Fortunately, the Bloody Baron floated past, and Peeves ran off.

When they had safely reached their dorm Susie immediately threw off her cloak and collapsed into bed, exhausted. Had she stayed awake she would have seen Hannah light a candle and begin searching _A Comprehensive Guide to Magical Healing_.

~~*~*~*~~

"Susie…Susie look at this." Hannah prodded her friend, who was listening to their roommate Megan describe to Emma the expensive black velvet cloak (complete with sterling silver filigreed clasp) she was hoping to receive for Christmas. Emma listened attentively, nodding and smiling, though Hannah was fairly certain she didn't know what she was nodding and smiling about. Megan, however, seemed to like this very much. She continued on to tell Emma all about the pricey silk dress robes she would be wearing at her father's Christmas party.

Hannah poked Susie again. This time Susie turned around and glared at her, shushing her impatiently. Hannah sat back and sighed. She had known she wouldn't get much of a response, but had thought it might be worth trying anyhow. Susie listened to Megan's boasting with a look of pure envy on her face. Hannah knew that Susie's worn belongings were something of a sore spot with her. It didn't matter to anyone else, and Megan wasn't so mean as to taunt her about it, but Susie hated her second-hand possessions.

Susie had managed to repair almost everything, but for some odd reason they wore out again far more quickly than normal. At least fixing them didn't give frightening sores and burns that stronger magic seemed to. Hannah looked at Susie's bandaged hands, well hidden beneath the sleeves of her robes, which were absurdly long. Her grandmother must have forgotten to shorten them.

Susie's burns were nearly healed now, even though the spells in _A Comprehensive Guide to Magical Healing_ didn't seem to help. Hannah knew what would happen next. Susie's hands would heal, and she would forget about them and would insist on trying more ridiculously advanced magic. Then she would be burned again. So she would use the other hand to hold her wand and burn that one, too.

Hannah wondered if there was any way to stop her. She had seriously considered telling Professor Dumbledore, or maybe Professor Sprout, or probably just Cedric, but had chickened out. What if Susie wouldn't be her friend anymore? What if the Professors couldn't stop her? What if they expelled Susie? Then where would Susie be? Back with her grandparents, still practising and burning herself. Hannah wouldn't even be there to help her with her injuries or try to make her reasonable. Not that Hannah could make her see reason now, but still... She would be totally alone at Hogwarts without Susie.

Now she had to find a way to heal the burns, because Susie obviously wasn't going to let anyone stop her. It was almost like she needed to do this to feel important. She was always in a very good mood when she had successfully mastered a difficult spell, and even if her superior attitude could be maddening, it was better by far than the despair Hannah saw in her when she couldn't get a spell to work.

Hannah turned back to _The Dangers of Dragons: Bites and Burns_, and looked at the potion recipe again. It didn't look too hard, but she wasn't sure all the ingredients were available in the student store cupboard. She considered going back to the Hospital wing for _The Treatment of Magical Wounds_. Of the three books she had selected, that one had looked the most promising.

She decided they had better brave Snape's stores instead. If they were caught skulking around the Hospital Wing, someone would figure out that it was they who had been there before, and they would be in serious trouble. They could probably get in and out of Snape's stores without anyone noticing. Besides, the potion recipe promised it would cure any burn. She wasn't so sure a spell would work at all, considering it was practising spells that had created the burns in the first place.

A/N: This chapter is brought to you by the plot bunnies stealth attack force. Again thanks to Jade Bear and Aristyar for betaing it. 


	6. Caught

Chapter Six: Caught

Susie sleepily poured pumpkin juice into hers and Hannah's glasses as Hannah served them both fried eggs and toast.

"Not that one, it's runny," Susie warned Hannah.

"I know, no runny eggs. Could you pass me the jam please, Megan? Megan?"

Megan didn't answer. She was busy watching the windows for the arrival of the morning post. Everyone in Hufflepuff (and quite a few in the other Houses, as well) knew she was expecting her new cloak, having convinced her parents that she couldn't wait until Christmas.

Hannah sighed. "Susie, hand me the jam please." Susie passed it to Hannah and they began to eat. Susie didn't much care about the post. Nothing ever came for either of them, and Susie wanted to finish and leave the table before the cloak came. She wasn't sure how long she could listen to Megan's boasting without hexing her. Her own cloak was threadbare and faded to a washed out grey. She went without it as often as she could to avoid being seen in it, but she knew that she couldn't do that for much longer. The weather was getting colder by the day.

Just as she began to eat her second piece of toast, the post owls flew in. Four of them bearing a large package swooped down in front of Megan. She jumped up and caught it and began tearing it open eagerly, forgetting her breakfast.

"Look at that her with that cloak, Hannah! What a show off! I hope she tears it!" Susie whispered viciously.

Hannah wasn't paying any attention. She was holding a letter with a look of awe on her face. "It's from my parents, Susie. They finally wrote me."

Susie felt a sharp twist of pain, but she forced a smile. "What's it say?" she asked, trying to control the bitterness in her voice, but not quite succeeding. She didn't really want to know, but felt she could at least be polite.

Hannah didn't notice. "They don't say much. Just that they're doing fine and they're glad I'm happy and they're looking forward to seeing me at Christmas. They don't say anything at all about Hogwarts, but it doesn't matter. Susie…what about your grandparents? Why don't they ever write you?"

Susie was momentarily struck silent. She had forgotten she had never told Hannah her grandparents were dead.

"They're Muggles." Susie said quickly. It wasn't quite a lie-- they _had_ been Muggles.

"My parents are Muggles, and they wrote to me," Hannah pointed out. "Maybe you should ask Professor Sprout to make an arrangement like with my parents so they can write you."

Susie hesitated for a moment, then plunged ahead. After all, she had trusted Hannah with her greatest secret. "That wouldn't help, Hannah," she told her friend. She paused again, taking a deep breath. She would tell Hannah the truth, but she would _not_ let her see how much it affected her. Susie had learned from bitter experience that showing grief made you vulnerable. "They're dead," Susie told her flatly.

Hannah stared at Susie, stunned. "But—but when did they die? This year? Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, slightly hurt.

"They died when I was nine," Susie said in the same expressionless voice.

"But then- then…"

"St. Mungo's Children's Home. I haven't got any other family. My parents died in an accident when I was a baby, and my other grandparents were killed by You-Know-Who, along with my aunt and uncle and cousins," she answered Hannah's unfinished question, straining to keep her voice steady.

Susie felt her the sting of tears in her eyes and knew she couldn't hold them back much longer while Hannah was watching her with such sympathy. She would _not_ cry! Not here! Not in front of that stuck up Megan or talebearer Ernie! Susie got up and fled the table, leaving Hannah staring after her, dumbstruck.

~~*~*~*~~

Hannah couldn't believe they were doing this again, and she _really_ couldn't believe was that it had been her idea, and not Susie's. She crawled reluctantly out of her warm bed and tried to shake Susie awake. Susie mumbled something rude and rolled over. Hannah shook her harder. The oddity of the situation struck her. Normally it was Susie who couldn't sleep, who lay awake in bed waiting for the clock to strike midnight, and who coaxed and threatened Hannah out of bed. But then, this hadn't been Susie's idea.

Hannah knew it was a desperate plan at best, sneaking into Snape's office and stealing potion ingredients, but she had racked her brains for weeks, trying to find another way, and this was the best idea that had come to her. Peeves and Mrs. Norris seemed to look specifically for them lately. Filch had probably put them up to it, though she realised it could just be her exaggerating things because of her overwrought nerves.

At any rate, Hannah supposed the best way to avoid Peeves and Mrs. Norris would be to avoid the places where they might be looking for them, like the Hospital Wing. Hannah was certain that, like everything else, the cat and poltergeist would stay away from Snape's office. Some odd logic made that the safest place for Hannah and Susie to be, or at least she hoped so.

She shook Susie again, pulling the covers up a little to let the cold November air in. It worked. Susie sat up sleepily, yawning and shivering and more than a little annoyed.

"Remind me. What exactly are we doing?" she asked irritably.

Hannah grinned, pleased that Susie had arisen so quickly. "We need to get ingredients from Snape's office for the burn healing potion." Hannah had explained this all before, but she didn't mind explaining it again. She knew it always took three or four repetitions before anything got through to Susie, since she didn't pay much attention to anything she found boring.

Susie brightened up immediately. Night-time wandering was one of her favourite activities, for reasons Hannah could never understand. "Excellent!" Susie said with disgusting cheerfulness. Susie climbed out of bed and grabbed her cloak from the back of a chair. "Let's go!"

~~*~*~*~~

"Susie, keep a look out please, I'll find the potions stuff."

Susie stayed at the door and scanned the hallway diligently. Hannah wondered how long this helpfulness would last; as she knew Susie's attention span was short. The sooner they got the ingredients and got out of here, the better. She hurried into the storeroom that adjoined the classroom, reluctant to leave Susie to her own devices in a room full of potential trouble, but she realised that she would be more of a hindrance than a help while searching for the ingredients.

Bubotuber puss…lacewings…vampire blood…beetle eyes…frost fairy dust-- perfect. Hannah carefully lifted the pot down from the shelf and scooped a bit into a vial she had brought with her. Now all she had to find was the ashwinder eggshells and the powdered dragon scales. She paused to listen. It was quiet. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

She continued to search the shelves, growing more and more anxious. Finding the frost fairy dust so quickly had been sheer luck. There were thousands of vials, jars, and pots in here, and they didn't seem to be in any particular order. Some of them weren't even labelled. They could be here for hours.

"Haven't you found them, yet? I've been waiting _forever_!"

"Come help look and you won't _have to_ wait." It meant not having a lookout, but it also meant that Susie wasn't wandering around bored. Susie climbed up onto the counter and began searching.

"Pickled frog spines…eww, nasty!"

Hannah turned and saw Susie peering into a squat brown jar with a look of fascinated disgust on her face and sighed. She hoped the remaining ingredients were on her own side of the room…

"Finding anything useful?" a deep voice asked smoothly, frightening Hannah into dropping a jar of acromantula venom onto the floor. The jar shattered and venom seeped across the stone floor, bubbling and hissing and giving off an acrid scent.

"Idiot girl! Get away from there!" Snape snarled, storming towards them.

Hannah felt her blood turn to ice in her veins, and she wished the ground would swallow her up whole. Her legs felt heavier than lead weights as she stepped around the growing puddle. Visions of detention and expulsion loomed up before her.

"You too, Miss Bones! Don't think that I can't see you hiding back there!" he snarled.

Hannah glanced back and saw Susie looking terrified, and a little angry at the same time. She hoped Susie had the sense not to disobey and make their situation worse.

Susie, inspired by Snape, or perhaps by the encroaching puddle of poison, made her way to stand next to Hannah. She positioned herself a bit in front of Hannah, as if to protect her. It was a small gesture, but Hannah appreciated it all the same.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded, addressing Hannah.

"Er…we …we were looking for potions ingredients." Hannah stammered.

"What exactly, were you intending to brew?" he asked coldly.

"Don't tell him, Hannah! Don't you tell him!" Susie shrieked.

Snape turned to her with a look of incredulous disbelief on his face, and Hannah was certain they'd never come out of this alive.

Susie stood there stubborn and defiant, head held high and hands clasped behind her back, but Hannah could see her trembling slightly. She knew that Susie was as scared as she was, but was hiding it very well. Hannah would have admired her courage, if it hadn't been so incredibly stupid.

"What are you holding behind your back?"

Susie narrowed her eyes and held her head a little higher, although Hannah could see that her trembling had increased a bit. Susie was starting to shift her weight from foot to foot, something she only did when she was very uncomfortable.

"You _will_ show me what you are hiding, or I promise you'll regret the day you came to this school," he said with deadly calm.

Slowly, Susie drew her arms from behind her back. Hannah held her breath, frightened about what she might be holding. Knowing Susie, it could be anything. Not to mention that she was drawing attention to her bandaged hands.

Hannah was relieved to see it was only the frog spines Susie had been so fascinated by earlier. Snape couldn't get too upset, as those could be found in the student store cupboard.

Snape snatched the jar from Susie and upon identifying it cast it aside. In doing so, the white bandages, no longer hidden by the sleeves of her nightdress caught his eye.

"What did you do to your hands?" he seemed to be satisfied at finding something incriminating.

Susie clenched them into fists and lowered them to her sides. "Nothing," she lied.

"Take off those bandages."

Hannah began to tremble, frightened of what would happen when Snape saw the burns. She didn't have to be a full blood to know that burns like that were very unusual.

Susie slowly unbound her hands. She held them out for his inspection palms down, and Hannah silently cursed her for continuing to try the professor's limited patience.

"Turn them over," he said with so much cold patience that it was frightening.

Susie reluctantly displayed her injured palms. Hannah looked at them in horror. Was it her imagination, or did they look worse than ever?

Snape stared at the burns for a long moment before ordering them, "Both of you, come with me."

This was worse than Hannah had ever imagined. They were going to be expelled. Well, at least her parents would be pleased, she thought morosely. They had never wanted her to come, and now she was leaving after only a few months. She followed Snape out the door, dragging her feet and trying to control the tears in her eyes. She heard Susie trail after her, her footsteps equally leaden.

Two long corridors and a flight of stairs later, Hannah finally had her eyes under control. She stole a glance back at Susie. She was lagging behind and instead of looking subdued and contrite, her eyes were bright and alert, glancing furtively down corridors. She was going to try to make a break for it. Hannah could scarcely believe it, but then, all one could expect Susie was the unexpected.

Hannah took a few steps back and grabbed Susie's wrist and dragged her forward.

"Leggo!" she whispered furiously, trying to wrench her wrist from Hannah's grasp.

"No!" Hannah replied, equally furious.

Snape stopped and turned around, silencing them both with a venomous look. The girls remained quiet for the rest of the long walk through the deserted corridors. At last they reached a stone gargoyle and Snape stopped and murmured a password. The gargoyle sprung forward, revealing a spiral staircase that was moving upward on its own, like an escalator. Snape motioned for them to go first, and Hannah obeyed, dragging Susie reluctantly after her.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie and Hannah sat miserably in the Headmaster's office, staring morosely at the stone floor. Susie felt sick. They were going to be expelled, and she had to admit it was her fault, much as she might have liked to pin the blame on Hannah. But Hannah had done it for her. She thought about how Hannah had kept her secret for so long, how she had helped her and encouraged her and even scolded her. Hannah cared, really cared, and now she was in trouble because Susie had been too stupid to listen to her.

"Thank you, Severus," Professor Dumbledore dismissed him. Snape turned and left.

He watched them for a moment over his spectacles, and Susie squirmed under his gaze.

"Show me your hands, please, Miss Bones."

Susie didn't dare disobey. She slowly held out the palms of her hands for inspection. The burns looked angry and red.

"I see."

Susie put them in her lap again; careful not to let the burns touch her robes.

"Where did you get these burns?" he asked gently.

Somehow she couldn't lie to him. "My wand." She looked down at the floor, unable to meet his eyes.

"What were you doing with your wand, to cause such burns?""Making up spells," she confessed quietly.

"Would you mind showing me one of your spells?"

Susie looked at him quizzically for a moment, then pulled out her wand. She winced as it touched the raw flesh. She paused a moment, deciding what she should do, and finally she decided to fix something. It always worked, and it was the first spell she had ever made up. She reached out and took a small crystal candlestick off of the Headmaster's desk.

"May I break this?" she asked timidly. Hannah looked horrified, but didn't say anything.

He nodded his consent, watching her with polite interest.

Susie dropped it on the floor, where it shattered, the sound waking many of the portraits.

She pointed her wand, and whispered 'be fixed', almost hoping it wouldn't work. But the candlestick flew back together instantly. She picked it up off the floor and handed it to Professor Dumbledore.

"Doing this causes the burns?" he asked gently.

"Not small magic like that, but bigger magic when I try the stuff the third and fourth years are doing," she explained.

"Ah." He didn't appear angry or shocked; he even looked…sympathetic. Almost like he really understood. "Spellcrafting. Quite simply, the ability to 'make up' spells," he explained to them, seeing Susie and Hannah's confused looks. "Spellcrafting is a very rare and dangerous gift. A spellcrafter, in time, can create spells any witch or wizard can use. Your grandmother was the last true spellcrafter. That is her wand you possess. It is the reason you are able to create spells at such a young age, and the reason you're being injured by it. You have not had enough training to be able to control such a powerful wand."

Susie looked at the wand, then at Professor Dumbledore. "My grandmother was a Muggle," she said quietly, confused.

"Your other grandmother, your father's mother," Professor Dumbledore explained.

Susie stared at the wand again. She had never had anything from her father's side of the family, not even stories. Now she had both a rare talent and her wand from a grandmother she had never known. For the first time since her grandparents died she felt like she wasn't alone.

She felt Hannah's curious stare, but didn't look up.

"What was her name?" Susie asked at last.

"Leda. Leda Hawksworth Bones. Keep her wand and use it well, but do not use it unduly. First learn to control your own magic, before trying to create more spells."

Susie nodded reluctantly, sorry that she would have to stop creating spells. Hannah looked relieved.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

She shook her head. Her mind was too full for questions.

"If you will go see Madam Pomfrey, she'll take care of your hands."

Susie slid off the chair and left the office, Hannah following her.

~~*~*~*~~

Madam Pomfrey looked at Susie suspiciously when Susie showed her her injured hands, but she didn't ask any questions, which surprised Susie. The nurse looked even more surprised when the burn healing spell she cast didn't help Susie's hands. She went into her office and came back with an evil smelling orange paste, which she dabbed on the burns. Susie's hands stung and then grew cool, bringing welcome relief. She wondered if this had been the potion Hannah had wanted to make.

"Come back in the morning for more burn paste. You may return to your dormitory now."

~~*~*~*~~

Things had gone surprisingly well. They should have told Professor Dumbledore a long time ago.

Back in their dorm, Hannah could see that any relief Susie might have felt at escaping punishment had long since dissipated, and that she was quickly heading towards a full-fledged tantrum. She decided to change the subject.

"I heard from my parents again," she whispered, not wanting to wake the others.

"So?" Susie snapped. "You're always rubbing it in because you have parents and I don't!"

"They want you to come for Christmas holidays," Hannah told her quickly, hoping to divert Susie's hysterics, because they almost always led to really bad ideas, and they couldn't afford any more trouble right now.

"Really?" Susie seemed stunned.

Hannah smiled. It had worked. "Really," she assured Susie. "I wrote them and asked and they said you were to come, and you weren't to go anywhere else." The last part was a bit of an exaggeration, but it didn't matter, they _had_ said she could come-- if she didn't do magic and didn't mention Hogwarts.

Susie still seemed petulant, but when Hannah suggested they go to bed, she agreed without argument.

~~*~*~*~~

Several weeks later, Susie came out of Transfiguration to find a Hufflepuff Prefect waiting for her.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you," the older girl told Susie, looking at her curiously. Susie's stomach dropped. This day couldn't possibly get any worse. Not allowed to make up spells, she found herself behind in all her classes. She had never learned the real spells for class, preferring to just make up her own. Worse still, the professors paid particular attention to her, making sure she was using the right spell. Today McGonagall had caught her using her own spell and had taken 15 points off. She wondered what the Headmaster could possibly want with her. She hadn't really done magic outside class, that little bit in Transfiguration was the most she had done. Hannah had seen to that, she thought sourly.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" the Prefect asked impatiently.

Hannah fell into place behind her.

"Not you, just her," the Prefect told Hannah.

"Wait for me," Susie told Hannah miserably and followed the Prefect.

Susie recognised the stone gargoyle and ascended the moving stairs alone, leaving the Prefect at the bottom, still staring curiously up at her.

Susie knocked softly on the door at the top of the staircase; half hoping the headmaster wouldn't hear her.

"Come in."

Susie opened the door and slid in, standing near the door. The office seemed a lot cheerier in the daylight. It was full of interesting objects. Susie wished coming here didn't always mean she was in trouble, she would have loved to look around, and Professor Dumbledore reminded her a little bit of her grandfather.

"Ah. Miss Bones. Come in, come in. Have a seat," he said kindly, and Susie slowly sat down on one of the plush purple chairs in front of his desk, relaxing just a bit. He didn't seem angry at all.

"I understand you are progressing nicely with your studies," he began. "I must commend you for not using spells of your own to help you."

Susie thought guiltily of the earlier Transfiguration lesson, now sorry for what she had done.

"You have a very special gift. With the proper training you can do great things with it." He peered at her over his odd spectacles. "I have contacted Ferran Behrak. He specialises in gifts such as yours. I would like you to study with him over the Christmas and summer holidays. He will be able to teach you to control your gift, for your own good and for the good of others."

"But- but I can't!" Susie blurted out. "I'm going to stay with Hannah! Her parents said I could!"

"I'm sorry," he said, and he looked it, "but for now, at least, you need Mr. Behrak's tutelage. Perhaps next term you may be able to visit Miss Abbott."

Susie stared at him, shocked and disappointed, but she knew arguing wouldn't do any good.

"If you have no questions, you may go."

Susie turned and stomped out the door. 

It just wasn't fair! She had been _so_ looking forward to spending the Holidays with Hannah. It would be almost like having a real family again. Before Hannah had asked her, she had been planning on going back to the Children's Home, for no other reason than so that no one would know she hadn't a family to go home to.

Christmas at the Home was a dismal affair—one puny artificial tree in the lobby and packages of cheap little toys put together by local charities, but it had been preferable to staying at Hogwarts by herself. But none of that mattered now, since she had to go and stay and study with some strange teacher. She was furious. What was the point of having a special gift if you couldn't do whatever you wanted?

A/N: Again, thanks to my betas, Aristyar and Jade Bear. A special thanks to Dr. Fidelius, who helped me get rid of the out of control page divider thingies J 

Alcyone


	7. The Manor

Chapter Seven: The Manor

Susie pulled her cloak close as she stepped of the Knight Bus, hauling her battered trunk behind her. The wind bit at her ears and nose, and right now she wished more than anything that she was at Hannah's house or even at the Orphanage. She had tried to convince Stan, the conductor, that there had been a last minute change, and that she was really supposed to be going to Bristol, where Hannah lived, but he hadn't been fooled. He told her that Dumbledore had specifically said that she was to go to Cardiff, so that's the only place he could take her.

The trunk dropped to the ground with a heavy _thud_ and Susie slowly dragged it away from the bus, ignoring the driver and conductor's friendly waves. The bright purple bus took off again with a loud _bang_ and Susie was left alone. She briefly considered running away, leaving before she even had to meet this Mr. Behrak. Susie was certain he would be horrible, worse than Professor Snape and Madam Scatcherd combined. This was to be her punishment for all the secret magic she had been doing and all the midnight wanderings. That's why the Headmaster hadn't even given her a detention for trying to steal potions ingredients. He was sending her _here_ instead.

She looked up at the Manor house. It loomed in front of her, huge menacing and making her feel very small and alone. The wet snow gathering on the building did nothing to soften its appearance, but accented the sharp angles and highlighted the roughness of the grey stone of which it was built. There were many windows, tall and narrow, but they were all dark. She didn't like it.

She stood in indecision for a moment or two, looking longingly down the road. The bitter wind cutting through her threadbare cloak like it wasn't there and the rapidly fading daylight made up her mind. She would stay the night, grab some food, and set off in the morning. Surely he wouldn't do anything too horrible in one night!

Resigned, she clutched the handle of her trunk and began lugging it up the icy sidewalk. She fell immediately. She was more frustrated than hurt, but she got up again and walked on, using more care this time.

_BANG!_ The trunk dropped to the ground. Susie looked down at it angrily. The stupid handle had come off! She had magicked that back on just yesterday when she had been packing! It should have stayed fixed! Her magic always lasted longer than a day! Always! She didn't need anyone to teach her to do magic! She could do it just _fine_ all by herself!

She threw open the lid of her trunk, and rummaged through her belongings, shoving aside her clothes and books. Just her luck! Her wand _would_ be all the way at the bottom! She slammed the lid shut, and threw the loose handle into a snow bank. Angrily, she snatched the handle on the other end, now slick with ice, and turned the trunk around and stormed up the sidewalk. She promptly fell, earning herself a badly bruised knee and twisted wrist. She pulled herself up again and stomped up the slick pavement more slowly this time, her aching knee and wrist doing nothing to improve her temper.

At last she reached the massive front doors. They were at least twice as tall as she was and the knockers, in the shape of roaring lion's heads with rings hanging out of their mouths, were well above her head. When she got up on her tiptoes she could barely reach them. She managed to give one of them a light tap, wincing at the cold air that had rushed up under her cloak as she lifted her arm up. She stood back and waited for the door to open, hoping that the knocker had been charmed so that it could be heard throughout the house, like the one at the Orphanage. She waited a few moments, shivering, before reaching up and knocking again, slightly harder this time. Her anger and frustration smoldered inside her. She waited even less this time before she gave the door a good hard kick. It didn't do much more than bruise her foot, but it was oddly satisfying, and her feet were too numb to feel anything anyhow. She gave it a few more kicks for good measure and would have continued kicking it except that her feet had warmed up a bit and they _really_ hurt.

More frustrated than ever, she dove into her trunk again, intent on finding her wand. She threw clothes and books and papers into the snow, not caring if they got wet, cold, and dirty. All she wanted was her wand, because if he wasn't going to open that door, she would just open it herself! She'd show him!

She didn't find her wand until her trunk was nearly empty, then she spotted it wedged into a corner. She snatched it out and backed a few feet away from the door. She fell again as she was walking back, but she was too angry to care. She stood up and held her wand out.

"OPEN UP!" she screamed, pouring all her anger and frustration into the wand.

A jet of red light shot out the end of her wand and hit the doors, which splintered into dagger sized pieces and fell back into the entrance. She felt a sharp stab of pain in the palm of her hand and knew she had been badly burned, but it didn't matter-- she had won. Feeling satisfied, if a little scared at her own power, she shoved her things back into her trunk and went inside, the wooden remains of the door catching on her cloak and robes like many tiny hands as she waded through the splinters, dragging her trunk behind her.

As she entered the entrance hall and walked clear of the wreckage, she heard rapid footsteps coming down the staircase fifty or so feet in front of her. She looked back at the remains of the door, now a pile of kindling, a wide swath cut through it where she had dragged her trunk through the rubble, and felt a surge of guilt and fear. She remembered Professor Dumbledore telling her not to do anymore magic outside of class, and she couldn't even imagine what Mr. Behrak would do to her when he saw what she had done.

The footsteps stopped and she looked up from the debris to see a man standing there incredulously, staring at the splinters that had been his front doors. It could only be Mr. Behrak. He was tall, with dark shoulder length hair liberally streaked with grey. His tanned face was lined and weathered, with a heavy features and a large, slightly crooked nose. He looked mean, as Susie had been certain he would. She stared at her shoes, waiting for him to recover and do whatever he was going to. She considered running, but her feet didn't seem to want to move.

"What the hell did you do to my doors?" he demanded angrily at last, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"You wouldn't open them, so I did it myself!" she said indignantly, hoping she didn't betray the fear she felt.

His eyes traveled to her wand, which she was still clutching. "Give me that!" he snapped, jerking it out of her hand.

"No! Give it back!" Susie cried, forgetting her fear and running up to him. She had to have her wand! He ignored her and inspected the wand carefully, well out of Susie's reach. Susie stood there next to him, feeling tiny next to his great height and wishing fervently that she had decided to run away when she had had the chance. Torchlight played on his face, making it look eerily as though it had been carved out of stone.

She was tempted to kick him in the shins, but didn't quite dare, so she settled for a sharp tug at his sleeve instead. He scowled down at her. Susie paused for a moment, scared by the look on his face, until she saw him holding her wand. "It's mine, give it back! Give it back or –or I'll…"

"You'll what?" he sneered.

"I'll- I'll break that other door!" She pointed to a door in the stone wall next to her.

"Without your wand?"

Susie was silent. She realised he was right, she couldn't do any magic at all without her wand.

Mr. Behrak smirked and glanced back at the ruined doors. "I think I'll keep this for now."

"No, you can't!" she shrieked. "Give it back! It's my wand, I want it back!"

It was too late-- he was walking away. She ran after him, but couldn't keep up with his long paces, not with her bruised knee and feet. He disappeared through a door at the far end of the hall. She ran up and tugged at the handle, but it was locked, and without her wand, there was no way she could open it.

She threw herself down in a nearby chair, which creaked loudly in protest and sent up clouds of dust. She _knew_ she should have run away earlier. It might be cold and dark out, but at least she would still have her wand. She looked around the hall. It was enormous, almost as big as the entrance hall at Hogwarts, though not nearly so friendly and certainly not as well looked after. The giant chandeliers were badly tarnished, and only half filled with guttering candles. The light didn't reach the ceiling, giving the impression that there wasn't one, except that there weren't any clouds or stars. Susie didn't need to know much about furniture to realise that there were a wide variety of styles in the room, and that they were badly matched. A few of the pieces were broken and a couple of the upholstered pieces looked as though mice had been nesting in them. Faded, cobwebby paintings hung on the dark wooden paneled walls, but Susie couldn't see any people in them. Maybe they were hiding. If Susie were stuck in a portrait and made to hang in a room as creepy as this one, she'd hide, too.

Recovering her strength and her anger, she set off through another door on the opposite wall to find Mr. Behrak and her wand, only to find a room similar than the one she had just left, though smaller. She plodded through hall after hall, peering into dark, dusty rooms, until she lost all sense of direction, and most of her sense of purpose. Exhaustion and hunger were taking their toll, and just when she felt that she would have to lie down and sleep right where she was, she stumbled into a large kitchen. It was large and had a low ceiling. Bunches of herbs and vegetables hung from massive rafters. Rusty cast iron pots and pans hung from the walls, which were coarsely hewn stone, much rougher than the stone she had seen elsewhere in the manor.. A dank, earthy sort of feel to the room gave Susie the impression of being in a burrow. On the wall to her left there was a roaring fire in a fireplace as big as a small room, and she gratefully sank down in front of it. All the other rooms she had been through had been cold and dank, and she was chilled to the bone. She pulled her hood over her head and laid down, preparing to sleep right there.

"Is miss wanting something to eat?" a squeaky voice came from behind her, startling her. She whirled around. In front of her stood a small greenish creature with large floppy ears and a very pointed nose. It was only a couple of feet high, and dressed in what looked like an old towel.

"What are you?" Susie asked it sharply. She knew it was rather a rude question to ask, but right now, she was too tired to care.

The creature didn't seem to mind, for it answered proudly, "I is a house-elf, miss. I is called Nod."

Susie stared at the strange thing for a moment. Then she remembered that someone had mentioned that house-elves did all the work at the Orphanage. This must be the same sort of thing. "I do want something to eat," she told it, wondering what it would do.

Nod looked positively delighted. He began hauling food over and piling it around her. He didn't stop until there was enough food to feed her for at least a week. The food was plainer than what she ate at Hogwarts, but very good. She chose some of the roast meat and bread and soup, avoiding the foul smelling cheese and setting aside a few meat pasties to save for later. Susie ate ravenously until she was almost too full to move. When the house elf turned away, she crammed some of the leftover food into her pockets. It would save her the task of finding the kitchen again tomorrow before she left. That is, after she got her wand back. Refreshed, she set off again in search of Mr. Behrak, intent on recovering her wand so she could leave first thing in the morning. She might even be at Hannah's house by morning. She and Hannah had looked up the two places on a map, and they didn't look too far away.

She wandered through the huge manor with no more success than she had had before. Sleepiness washed over her in earnest now, and she decided she could always find her wand later. It would be easier to find her away around in the daylight, anyhow. She would have to find an empty bedroom and spend the night. After climbing several sets of steep stairs, she found a wing of bedrooms. She peered in each one, but all of the beds were just empty four poster bedsteads. The moonlight made them look like strange, long-legged monsters, and Susie didn't like them at all.

At last she saw torchlight spilling out of a doorway at the end of a long hall. She nearly ran to it. It was the first sign of life in this strange house that she had seen since leaving the kitchen. She ran in and spotted the bed, which not only had a mattress, but sheets and blankets as well and was turned down, as if waiting for her. She ran over to it, kicked her shoes off, and snuggled under the covers, not even bothering to take her cloak off. She fell into a deep sleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie didn't wake up until the sun was high and came streaming in through the window and reached across her face. She sat up and looked around blearily, disoriented. She wasn't at Hogwarts, or the Orphanage, either. Suddenly, it all came rushing back to her. She was at Mr. Behrak's manor, and he had her wand! She leapt out of bed and was rewarded with a sharp pain in her knee. She wondered how many times she had fallen yesterday, and she carefully straightened up. She was sore all over, and it wasn't helping her mood. She was tempted to crawl back in bed and sleep a little more, but she had to find her wand, and she was hungry.

She felt something wet and sticky seeping onto her skin, and reached into her pocket and felt the food she had put there yesterday. Not one of her better ideas, she thought, as she pulled a smashed pasty out of her pocket. Now she was sticky in addition to hungry, sore, wandless, and in a foul mood.

She emptied her pockets onto the floor, not caring that she was making a mess. None of the food was edible now, anyway. She left the room in search of the kitchens. After she got some food, she'd find her wand and leave. She could still spend most of the holidays with Hannah. Losing one day didn't really matter.

The manor didn't look much cheerier in the day than it had at night. It had lost some of its spookiness since the torchlight was gone, but in the pale morning light she could now see what a state of disrepair it was in. Everything was faded and dusty. Windows were cracked, the stone walls were crumbling, and cobwebs were omnipresent. She wondered why anyone would want to live here. Strange shadows gathered in the corners and under furniture and the light didn't seem quite as bright or as penetrating as it had at Hogwarts. She hurried on, avoiding looking too closely into the pools of shade.

She recognized the empty bedrooms as she walked down the hall, but after a few more flights of stairs and several twists and turns, she was completely lost. Everything looked so different in the daylight.

"Hello. Have you lost your way? Lots of people who aren't used to a manor of this size get lost."

Susie gave a small squeal and spun around. There was a ghost hovering behind her. Susie stared at it. It was a fat old woman. She wore a dress that seemed strangely childish, and her hair was in two fat plaited pigtails which hung over her shoulders. Her round face was heavily powdered, making her appear paler than she already was. In spite of her eccentric appearance, she seemed harmless. She even reminded her a bit of the Fat Friar, who haunted the Hufflepuff common room and who was a favourite with the Hufflepuffs.

"I'm looking for the kitchen," she told the ghost.

"Ah yes, the kitchens…I remember the feasts we used to have when I was your age. So many dishes, I could hear the table creaking under the weight of them all. The dinner I had for my coming out had no less than _thirty_ courses. That was seven more than Gracie Fairchilde had at _her_ coming out. You should have seen the dress I wore, it was rose silk with-"

"Excuse me!" Susie interrupted. "The kitchen?"

"Oh yes, you wanted to know the way to the kitchens. You must be new here then. There haven't been any little girls here in a long time. When I was a girl I was always having my friends over to stay. They were always _so_ impressed. If they were very, very nice to me, I'd let them hold the doll my papa brought me back from Paris. It was custom made, just for me. You would have loved it. What was your name again?"

"Er…Susie. Susie Bones."

"Susie…what a terribly common name. _I_ am Lady Marguerite," the ghost told Susie proudly. "When I was small, they used to call me Daisy. But now I am a Lady—Lady Marguerite."

"Yes, well, I have to go now." Susie turned and fled before Lady Marguerite could start reminiscing again. This house just got stranger and stranger. The sooner she was gone, the better.

A/N: Like the story? Make me smile, go ahead and review.

Thanks to all those who have reviewed.

Thanks again to my ROXin' betas.


	8. Plans

Chapter Eight: Plans

Susie nearly ran from Lady Marguerite, hoping the ghost wouldn't follow her and annoy her with more boring stories. When she thought she had lost the ghost, she slowed down to try to get her bearings and looked around. She was in a long corridor, heavily curtained windows down one side. She pulled back the nearest curtain to have a look outside. Clouds of dust rose in the air, and without waiting for them to clear, she pushed open the window stuck her head out and looked around. The air outside wasn't that much colder than the air in the manor. She was closer to the ground this time, but the scenery was completely different, snow covered fields and pasture as opposed to the mountains she had seen earlier. She must be in a different wing. She sighed and walked on. She was growing frustrated and increasingly hungry, but there was nothing else she could do. She noticed that even where the windows were bare, the bright winter sun didn't do much to illuminate the corridor. It was almost as if light weren't _allowed._ This place was giving her the creeps. She shuddered and walked on.

At the intersection of two corridors she came to a set of thick wooden doors, dark and ornately carved. One stood slightly ajar. As she paused to determine the best way to go, she heard a small _thud _that sounded as if it were coming from inside the room. She froze, listening hard, and feeling frightened despite herself. A moment later there was a soft cough. Someone was in there!

She crept up to the doors and peered in. It was a library or a study of some sort. The walls were lined with books, and there was a large table of some dark wood in the middle of the room. It was lit only by a few guttering candelabras with blue flames, giving the room an eerie glow. She could just barely make out someone sitting at the table, his back to her. It was Mr. Behrak! It had to be! Susie's spirits rose. If he were there, then her wand had to be there, too. She could sneak in, steal it back, and escape to Hannah's house and he would never know!

She looked around the room for her wand. There were some dark shapes on the table that might be it.

"Don't just stand there!" he called out impatiently. "Come in!"

How had he heard her? She had been so quiet! She stared at him, dumbfounded. He obviously knew loads of Dark magic to be able to detect her like that and fool Dumbledore.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come in!"

Susie was torn. She wanted desperately to tell him to go to hell and run away, just to spite him, but he had her wand, and she knew if she left it could be ages until she found him again. She would have to go in.

She tried to open the door fully so she could enter. It was much heavier than it looked and she had to really pull at it to make it move. He had probably charmed it to make it heavy on purpose. She was glad his back was to her, so that he wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing her struggle.

Once in, she stormed to the other side of the table to face him. "Give me back my wand!" she shouted, trying to sound dire and threatening.

He looked up from the book he was reading, an amused and condescending look on his face. "Have some breakfast," he said mildly, motioning towards a tray with bread, cheese, and fruit.

Susie looked at the tray with disgust. "I'm not hungry!" she said haughtily. That'd show him!

Her stomach gave a loud, ill-timed growl. He smirked but didn't say anything. He clapped his hands twice. The house elf she had seen last night Apparated into the room with a _pop_.

"Clear away the breakfast things," he ordered the elf curtly.

Nod looked at Susie, then back at Mr. Behrak.

"Miss Susan won't be eating this morning." He answered the house elf's unspoken question.

Nod nodded, took the tray, and Disapparated.

"Sit down, Susan," he ordered.

Susie remained standing, crossing her arms over her chest. "My name is _Susie_, and I _won't_ sit! Give me back my wand!"

He still had that maddening look of amusement on his face. She stomped her foot. How dare he laugh at her! She was serious!

"You won't be needing a wand," he told her. "You'll be studying theory first. You can start with these." He pushed a stack of books across the table to her.

She shoved them back as hard as she could. He caught them deftly before they fell off the table, enraging her further. "I won't! Give me back my wand! I don't want to be here!" she shouted.

He just smirked at her, but Susie could tell he was starting to get annoyed. A thought occurred to her. She might not be able to leave, but he could still send her away…

She took a deep breath, preparing to throw the worst tantrum she had ever had.

He turned and left the room, before she could even get one scream out. Susie stared after him in astonishment. He couldn't leave! She wasn't done yet! She thought fast. She could call him back, or follow him, but no, that would just be too pathetic. She'd have to wait until she saw him again. She plopped down into a nearby chair, disappointed and uncertain what to do next. She had no desire to go wandering the corridors again.

After a few bored moments and a furtive glance out the door to be certain he wasn't spying on her, she looked at the books he had set out for her. _A Beginner's Guide to Magical Theory_, _Elementary Arithmancy_,_ Latin I_,and _Rare Magical Gifts._ She looked at them with disdain. She couldn't believe he wanted her to study this stuff. She picked up _Rare Magical Gifts_, the only one that looked remotely interesting, and leafed through it. She turned to the back page to discover that, like most magical books, it had no index. She would have to look through the entire thing to see if there was anything on Spellcrafting in there.

She sat down again and began to read, skimming over the boring parts. There were a lot of them. She sighed. The book was huge, this would take forever, and she didn't like being here alone in this spooky room. There probably wasn't even anything about Spellcrafting in here at all. He probably put it in here to make her think there was so she'd waste her time reading it. She wasn't going to fall for it! She slammed the book shut so hard that several pages flew out.

She clapped her hands twice, as she had seen Mr. Behrak do, though she didn't really expect anything to happen. To her surprise, the house elf appeared almost instantly.

"Is miss wanting something?" he asked.

Susie considered. What she really wanted was her wand and to be at Hannah's house, but she didn't think he'd be much help. "Er, yeah, I want something to eat."

"Is miss wanting to eat here, or in her room?"

She had a room? "In my room," she told the elf.

Nod nodded. "Follow Nod, miss."

Susie grabbed the book as she passed, maybe she could find something in it later. She hadn't really done more than skim it, after all. Book in hand, she followed Nod through a maze of corridors. She tried to memorize the way, but soon became hopelessly confused. The house elf came to a stop in front of a door in a wing she didn't recognize.

"Here it is, miss," he told her. "Nod will bring food now." He Disapparated.

Susie pushed the door open and found herself in a huge room the size of the Common Room back at Hogwarts. It looked like some sort of nursery, but one that hadn't been occupied in a very long time. The wallpaper was faded yellow and cracked and peeling off the walls. A few ancient toys were scattered about the room, and wooden toy chests and cabinets lining the walls promised more. Susie was glad to see her own trunk at the foot of a four-poster bed. The sheets on the bed were the only things in the room that looked new and clean. Like the rest of the manor the room was dimly lit and damp. Susie wandered over to the window to open it and let some light and fresh air in. The yellowed, lacy curtains crumbled into dust in her hand. She sneezed a few times and backed away. The dust was thick and foul smelling. She decided the rest of the curtains could stay shut.

"Nod has brought food, miss."

Susie spun around, and saw the house elf standing behind her bearing a huge tray of food and wearing a pleased smile. He set the tray on a wobbly, child-sized wooden table and left with a request that she call him if she wanted anything more.

Susie sat down in the miniature chair next to the table. It collapsed beneath her. Impatiently she shoved the pieces away and set the tray on the floor. She sat down in front of it and began to eat the thick stew and bread. The food was hot and good, and as she ate, she began to calm down.

Susie felt the temperature in the room drop and looked up from her meal to see Lady Marguerite floating in front of her, looking sullen. Susie glared up at her, annoyed. She didn't want to see anyone right now, especially not Lady Marguerite.

"This is my room," she told Susie haughtily, as if this should have been obvious. "It's the best room in the whole manor, but you can stay here if you like," she offered generously.

"Thanks, but I'm not staying." Susie continued thickly, her mouth full of food.

"Why? Don't you like it here?" Lady Marguerite whined. "_Every_body likes it here. I have more toys than anyone, even Gracie Fairchilde." She gestured grandly at the decrepit playthings scattered about the room.

"There. That was the doll I told you about. The one my papa brought me from Paris. The one custom made _especially_ for me." She pointed at the remains of a large doll sitting on a shelf. "They'd say, 'Daisy, let me hold your doll. Daisy, please may I just comb her hair?' and I'd say 'No, that's a special doll. No one's to touch it but me.' I'd let them look at it, though."

It occurred to Susie that Lady Marguerite must be seeing things the way they had been when she was a child, for as it was now, nobody in their right mind would want to even look at the thing, let alone touch it. The doll's hair was stringy and half gone, and the dress was nearly rotted away. One arm was broken off, leaving shards of porcelain where a hand should have been, and one eye was gone. It had an almost sinister look about it that Susie didn't like at all.

"It's hideous," Susie told her peevishly, annoyed at being frightened at a stupid old doll.

Lady Marguerite looked deeply offended and her fat, wrinkled face twisted into a pout. "Hmph!" she snorted. "I was going to tell you a secret, but now I'm not going to!" She watched Susie closely, gauging her reaction to this dreadful piece of news.

"Good." Susie wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of asking about the secret, though she was a bit curious.

"I'm not going to play with you now!" she informed Susie haughtily as she floated away through a wall.

Susie finished the stew and left the dishes on the floor. She wandered around the room, trying to find something to occupy her. She opened the chests and cabinets, but all the toys that looked as though they might be fun were already broken or broke when she picked them up. Though she didn't find anything interesting, exploring the room took up several hours and when she had finally gone through everything, she was exhausted.

She went into the bathroom, which appeared fairly modern, in spite of the cracked tiles and the enormous claw-foot tub. At least it had hot water. She soaked in the tub until the water grew cool and then dressed, shivering, and crawled into bed, where she found a welcome warming pan. The semidarkness of twilight created strange dark shapes, but Susie was asleep before her imagination could make them come to life.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie woke early in the morning feeling better than she had in the last few days. She lay in her warm bed, dreading the cold air that filled the room. At last, hunger drove her out, and she bounded out of bed and dressed as quickly as possible.

The morning light streaming in through the windows fell across the room like spotlights, highlighting the faded and broken furniture and toys in the room, making the room appear to have aged another hundred years or so during the night, though Susie knew that wasn't possible. Had she been staying, she would have demanded a different room, preferably one that had a fireplace and wasn't haunted, but it didn't really matter, as she didn't intend to be here much longer. She remembered yesterday's resolution, and decided to begin immediately.

Susie clapped her hands twice, summoning Nod.

"I want breakfast," she told him, "and I want to eat with Mr. Behrak."

The house-elf looked thrilled, a huge grin on his homely face. "Follow Nod, miss."

Susie followed him through the manor, which looked less intimidating and more interesting now that it was light and she wasn't so tired. Just for a moment, she almost wished she could stay and explore.

She found Mr. Behrak in a small dining room off the kitchen. He was reading the Daily Prophet with a deep frown. He glanced up when she came in, but he didn't say anything, merely turned back to his paper, holding it up so it hid his face.

Susie was a bit disappointed. She had been hoping he'd at least give her a reason to start a tantrum. Starting hysterics cold never works as well as when one is provoked to them.

"I want my wand!" she cried, summoning every scrap of anger at every injustice to give her argument more force. "Give it back! Give it back NOW!" She stamped her foot for emphasis.

He turned the page of his paper, and gave no sign that he had heard her. Susie was enraged. _Nobody_ ignored her! Her tantrums had been legendary at the orphanage. She tried again. "GIVE ME BACK MY WAND!" she shouted at him.

It was as if she wasn't even there. Angrier than she could ever remember being, she ran up to the massive wooden table and began pushing it, trying to knock it over. It wouldn't budge. She pushed harder, grunting with the effort. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she was aware that she was going to look very silly if she couldn't even tip it. Anger gave her strength, and the table lifted just the tiniest bit. She was elated, and pushed even harder. She couldn't give up now! It lifted the slightest bit more. She was doing it!

The table fell back with a heavy thud. Susie looked up, panting with her exertions. Mr. Behrak was standing, and he looked furious. Susie felt well satisfied, if slightly frightened by the dark look on his face. If she kept this up, she'd be out of here within a few days.

"You will sit down and eat, or you will return to your room!" he said with cold anger.

Susie quelled and began to sit down meekly, but the feeling passed quickly. It was working! She couldn't give in now! She summoned her courage and prepared for another round.

"I WON'T! I WON'T SIT DOWN AND I WON'T LEAVE! GIVE ME BACK MY WAND!"

He stormed around the table and Susie felt certain he was going to strike her. She backed away and tried to evade him, but he was too fast. He grabbed her arm so tightly it was painful, and began to drag her out the door. When Susie saw his intent, she was thrilled. She hadn't expected her plan to work so soon! She fought a bit for good measure, but could barely keep a smile off her face. She wondered how soon she would be at Hannah's house.

Wait a minute! He was hauling her _upstairs_, away from the front door. He wasn't kicking her out at all! He was taking her back to her room! She began kicking and screaming in earnest, trying to brace herself against anything she could reach, knocking over furniture and lamps. It did no good, he was too strong and she was too small. He lifted her up easily and threw her over his shoulder, holding her firmly by the waist, and carried her out.

Susie pounded him on the back as hard as she could, but he didn't let her down or slow his pace. She knew it was futile, but she continued hitting him, furious at being carried like a sack of potatoes. She couldn't do much to stop him, but he could at least have a few bruises for his effort. They reached her room in a few minutes and he dumped her onto the floor and left. He slammed the door behind him, and she heard him mutter a few words to lock it. She picked herself up and ran to the door and shook the doorknob with all her small strength. It didn't even rattle. It might have been attached to the wall for all the good it did.

She threw herself down on the floor and stared sullenly at the locked door, angry and disappointed. This hadn't gone at all as she had hoped.

"In trouble, are you?" a high pitched voice asked from somewhere behind her. Susie spun around. It was Lady Marguerite, the last person she wanted to see. Fury welled up in her again. "I was _never_ in trouble when I was a girl. My papa said I was an angel come down to Earth," the ghost boasted with a tone of maddening superiority. She looked anything but angelic.

It was more than Susie could take. She grabbed the nearest thing she could reach and flung it at Lady Marguerite. It flew through the ghost and broke against the far wall with a satisfying crash. 

Lady Marguerite stuck out her tongue at Susie and angrily floated away through the wall. "Stupid ghost!" she screamed. She threw another figurine at the wall Lady Marguerite had floated through.

~~*~*~*~~

By that evening, Susie was bored and out of ideas. Nod had told her fearfully that Mr. Behrak had said she wasn't allowed to come out until she was going to behave herself. Her search for hidden doors was unsuccessful, and she had decided that the windows were too high off the ground to try anything. She amused herself playing with a dusty dollhouse for awhile, but soon lost interest in it.

Nod had brought her meals to her, but didn't stay with her. Lady Marguerite hadn't been back either. She briefly considered telling Mr. Behrak she was sorry, but she pushed that thought away. She'd never give in! She might have to stay here until after the Christmas holidays were over. Maybe he wouldn't ever let her go. They'd have to come looking for her, and he'd be in so much trouble!

Susie pondered this. She couldn't very well make him kick her out if she was stuck in her room, and anyhow she had no intention of staying here all holiday. But if she said she was sorry and he let her out and she threw another fit, she'd just be back where she began. There had to be another way! She went to bed still thinking about it.

She awoke early the next morning and lay staring up at the faded canopy, thinking. She had had an idea last night, a brilliant one, she was sure of it. She searched her mind, hoping to recall it.

She heard Nod come in and set a try down on the nightstand, but she ignored him. This was more important than breakfast.

The smells of toast and hot chocolate reached her and she gave up trying to remember. As she sat up and took the mug of hot chocolate off the tray, a book caught her eye. It was _Rare Magical Gifts_. She had forgotten she had taken it from the study. She set the mug down and reached for the book.

Bored and frustrated, she leafed through it. A moment later, her idea returned to her. If she couldn't make him kick her out because he _wouldn't_ teach her, maybe she could leave because he _couldn't _teach her. All she had to do was pretend to be really stupid, and he'd send her back and she'd never have to come here again! She could teach herself again back at Hogwarts, and no one would ever know! She cast the book aside and ate her breakfast quickly, eager to begin. She dressed and took one last look in the cloudy mirror in the bathroom, making sure she looked properly contrite. Satisfied, she summoned Nod.

"Tell Mr. Behrak I'm sorry."

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I'm not making any money of this, it's all for fun. Don't sue me.

A/N: Once again, thanks to Aristyar and Jade. Also thank you to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate it.


	9. Coming to Terms

A/N: Thanks a billion times over to Aristyar. Thank you also to those who have reviewed, particularly Michelle. You helped pull me out of my slump.

  
Disclaimer: None of this is really mine, I'm not making any money, blah, blah, blah

Chapter Nine: Coming to Terms

A few moments after she had sent the house-elf away with her message, she heard her door unlock. Mr. Behrak stood there, looking at her suspiciously. Maybe she should have waited a bit longer. She would have to make up for her bad timing by appearing particularly apologetic.

She looked down at the moldy pink carpet and said meekly, "I'm sorry I caused trouble, Mr. Behrak. It won't happen again." She glanced up to see how he was taking this. Was she doing something wrong? Maybe if she cried a bit?

"Very well," he said, still sounding suspicious. "Come with me, you can begin your lessons."

Susie followed him obediently. This was working out quite well. He led her down to the study where she had found him a few days ago. She sat down and he handed her _A Beginner's Guide to Magical Theory._ "Read the first chapter and answer the questions at the end of the chapter."

Theory was Susie's least favorite subject, but she remembered her plan and opened the book and began to read, waiting for him to leave so she could skip to the end and answer the questions incorrectly.

He didn't leave. He sat down and began writing something. She flipped the pages back and forth, not seeing anything on the pages. She knew she had to look as if she had at least attempted to read them. She leafed through them again, riffling the thin pages.

At last she couldn't stand the boredom anymore, and she took the parchment he had set in front of her. Loading the quill with ink, she paused and studied the first question. _The wand, to enhance the maximum potency of the spell, should be gripped how ?_ After a moment's thought, she scrawled down an answer-- _At the very tip of the wand, with the handle away from you._ This was easy! She grinned and moved on to the second question and did the same thing. The questions got harder, and Susie's answers became poorer with each one. At last she was finished. She surveyed her work, satisfied. Even stupid, slow Emma Rivers wasn't this dumb!

"Mr. Behrak?" She held the completed assignment out to him.

He looked up and gave a snort of derision, even before looking at her work. Susie wondered what she'd done wrong this time.

"You can call me Ferran." He took the parchment and glanced over it, the expression on his face growing darker as he read farther down the page, to where the really bad answers were. Susie began to wonder apprehensively if she'd gone a bit far.

He looked at her again, fury and skeptical disbelief written plainly on his face. She _had_ gone too far. Maybe it wasn't too late to salvage it though. She schooled her features into what she hoped was a look of blank confusion.

"You will redo this and redo it properly, unless you care to spend the rest of your holidays locked in your room."

Susie knew he'd do it, too, but it didn't matter, this was all part of her plan, and it was working beautifully. "I—I did my best, Mr. B—Ferran," she said plaintively, trying to cry. "I r-really did try," she pleaded again. "Please—please don't send me back to Hogwarts!" There! One small tear slipped down her face. If it hadn't been so critical that she keep her pitiful countenance, she would have grinned. She ought to be an actress!

A look of comprehension dawned on Ferran's face, followed by one of extreme frustration and anger. Susie's tears faltered, and she watched him closely. Something had gone badly wrong, but where? Susie cast her mind about for what she had done wrong. Had she answered one of the questions right? Had she slipped and smiled a bit?

They were interrupted by Nod, who popped into the room next to Ferran bearing a silver tray with letters on it.

"The mail, sir," Nod squeaked, shrinking back when he saw the anger on Ferran's face. Susie looked at the pile of letters, and there, on top, was one addressed to her!

"Hannah!" she cried, climbing onto her chair and lunging over the table for her letter, landing on the floor next to Nod. She was too late. Ferran had snatched all of them, and when she reached Nod, who looked terrified, the tray was empty. Nod Disapparated out of the room, leaving the tray clanging on the floor.

"It's mine! Give it to me!"

He made no move to hand her the letter, and she jumped up to try to snatch it away from him.

"Give it to me, now!" She jumped a bit higher this time. "It's my letter from Hannah, and I want it!"

He was still clutching the pile of letters, watching her cautiously. How could he! It wasn't fair-- that was _her_ letter! He held them high above her head. She jumped up again and this time grabbed his forearm with one hand and grabbed desperately at the letters with the other, her feet barely brushing the floor.

"Give it!" she demanded again, nearly crying with frustration.

Before she could react, he had both her arms in his other hand, and her feet were back on the ground. She tried to fly at him again, but he held her immobile. She stood there a moment, angry and frustrated and a little discouraged, before regaining her anger and her determination. It was her letter and she was going to get it back!

She kicked his shin as hard as she could, and had the satisfaction of seeing him wince. She drew back her leg and attempted to kick him again, but he saw her intent this time and blocked her with his own leg. She shrieked in pain and anger and flew at him with all her strength, taking him by surprise and wrenching her arms free. She hit and kicked everything within reach. She heard the sound of glass breaking and felt a stinging pain in her hand, but she was too angry to care. She could hear him yelling, but the pounding in her ears made sorting out the words impossible.

She felt a blinding pain across her face and staggered backwards, reeling from the blow. Her face stung and there was an unpleasant metallic taste in her mouth. She put her hand up to her sore face, feeling it gingerly. "You hit me," she said quietly, shocked. She felt like a balloon that had been suddenly popped, and she couldn't seem to do anything but stare up at him in shock.

"Yes. And I'll do it again if continue to behave like that." He was pale and sweaty, and looked both shocked and relieved at the same time, like he couldn't quite believe what he had just done.

Susie was stunned. No one had ever struck her that hard before. Madam Scatchard's sharp slaps seemed like pats in comparison. She took some small satisfaction in the fact that he wasn't gloating over her like the matron always did, he even looked a little bit…sorry. She rubbed her hand across her sore face again and felt something wet. She looked at her hand. There was blood and tears on it.

She held out her hand. "I'm bleeding," she told him flatly.

But she couldn't even work up much anger over that. She felt like a balloon that had been popped instead of deflating slowly.

Ferran turned a bit paler, and studied her face carefully and then her hand. "I think it's from your hand. You knocked over that goblet." He gestured to some shattered glass lying in a spreading pool of dark red wine.

"Oh." She looked at her hand again. She was cut. There was a long thin slash exactly perpendicular to the scars from her wand. She looked at it absently, watching the blood well up and roll off her palm onto the floor.

Ferran looked at her uncertainly, as if he hadn't really expected her to calm down. Susie felt a bit uncertain herself. They stood there, staring at each other in silence for several long uncomfortable moments, not quite meeting each other's eyes.

At last Ferran said, "Come on. Let's get your hand cleaned up." He left the room. Susie followed him reluctantly to a bathroom, where he found some antiseptic potion and bandages. He lifted her up onto the counter and she hesitantly held out her hand. She didn't like accepting his help, but her hand was throbbing painfully now, as well as bleeding rather badly, and she couldn't bandage it herself.

Susie watched him warily, surprised by this unwonted kindness. Her anger was gone, but suspicion remained, and something like…regret? Guilt? She wasn't sure what she was feeling, but she didn't like it. She squirmed a bit, and tried to become angry again. Anger was something she could easily understand and deal with. She thought of all the mistreatment she had received from him—how he had stolen her wand and locked her in a haunted room and, worst of all, struck her. But she _had_ behaved rather badly…She tried to shove the thought away, but it wouldn't be shoved. She hated to admit it, but maybe she had deserved it, just a little bit. He shouldn't have been so mean to her, but maybe…maybe he wasn't so bad after all. She still didn't need his help, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to call it pax, just for a week. Then she wouldn't ever come back.

After a moment's hesitation, Susie held out her other hand. It was the hand she used most, and the burn from the doors was still seared across her palm. It hadn't gotten any better in the past few days, and she was starting to get worried about it.

He stared at it. "From your wand?" he asked finally, in a strained sort of voice.

"Yeah. The doors."

He cleaned and bandaged it as well.

"May I have my letter now?" she asked when he was finished.

"When you've done the assignment properly."

Susie felt her indignation and anger rise. It wasn't fair, and she was almost ready to fight again, but her win-loss record with him wasn't very good, and she supposed the easiest way to get her letter was to just do as he asked.

"All right," she mumbled.

The only small satisfaction Susie got out of giving in was the look of surprise on his face. She writhed inside, hating to admit defeat, but he had won, every time. He lifted her down and she turned to the sink and wet a cloth to wipe her face. She saw in the mirror that her face was tearstained and streaked with blood from her hand. At least she could look presentable.

"Here now, you're going to get your bandages wet," he said, irritated. He took the cloth from her and awkwardly wiped the tears and blood off her face. Throwing the cloth aside, he led her back to the study, where she noticed the mess she'd made had been cleared away, presumably by Nod.

She sat down and sullenly opened the Magical Theory book again, this time to read it for real.

~~*~*~*~~

Hannah sat on the window seat in her room at home and stared out the window at the softly falling snow. She tugged absently at one of the neat braids her mother had insisted upon, twisting and untwisting it around her fingers. She had been home for nearly a week now, and she already wished she were back at Hogwarts. It used to be that she couldn't wait for the holidays to start and never wanted to return to school. Even the pile of presents under the tree didn't seem as appealing as it had when she was younger. Maybe it was because she knew she no longer had much interest in what was in them—Muggle clothes she wouldn't wear, Muggle toys that paled in comparison with the fabulous magical one she had seen. She knew she wouldn't be unwrapping the wizard chess set she wanted, nor the iridescent Gobstones like Megan Jones', nor the hair ribbons that changed color to match your mood. Her stocking would hold candy canes, not sugar quills and chocolate frogs.

"Hannah!" Her mother's voice called up the stairs into her room. "Hannah, come down here! I want you to meet someone!"

"I'm doing homework, Mummy!" Hannah yelled back, pulling her Transfiguration text out of her trunk and opening it so it wasn't entirely a lie.

There was a heavy silence. "Oh…all right," her mother said, her voice faltering a bit.

Hannah sat back down and sighed as she turned to the pages they had been assigned to read. It had worked, as she knew it would, and yet somehow, she wished it hadn't.

"…Our Lady of Perpetual Grace…yes, in London…very exclusive…so proud…" Snatches of her mother's conversation floated up the stairs to her, and Hannah sighed and stared out the window again, unable to concentrate on the intricacies of Transfiguring fur into feathers.

She knew they had to tell Muggles she went to a Muggle school in London; she just wished her mother would quit trying to believe that, too. She always changed the subject or feigned deaf if Hannah mentioned something magical or referred to Hogwarts at all. Her dad didn't do any of that, but he didn't show much interest in what she said or encourage her to tell him more. Not that they had ever shown much interest in her school or her activities, but at least before they had been willing to hear about them.

Hannah heard the doorbell ring again. Another Christmas well-wisher. It seemed like everyone in the neighborhood would be coming by today for eggnog and gossip. If this kept up it would be take away for dinner again tonight.

"Hannah!" Her mother's voice was urgent and nervous. "Hannah, you have a visitor! Mrs. White is here to see you!" 

Hannah leapt up from her seat and ran down the stairs. Mrs. White was the kind old witch who delivered and received Hannah's letters to and from her parents and who had let her use her owl to send a letter to Susie.

Hannah stopped at the foot of the stairs and watched at the scene before her, feeling guiltily amused at her mother's discomfort. Mrs. White looked every inch the witch, from the frizzy grey hair pulled into an unruly bun to the silver buckled shoes on her feet. She wore faded green robes and carried a large carpetbag, out of which peeked a small black cat. Mrs. Abbott looked appalled and embarrassed, and the neighbor woman who was visiting her looked on with intense curiosity in her beady little eyes.

"There you are, dear!" Mrs. White gave her a warm smile.

Hannah managed a small smile back, trying to ignore her mother's pointed looks.

"I thought I'd do a bit of Christmas shopping in Di- in town," Mrs. White corrected herself just in time. "I wondered if you'd like to come along."

Hannah looked nervously at her mother.

"Why don't you take Mrs. White into the kitchen to wait while you get ready?" Her mother gave her a tight, fake smile and another pointed look.

Hannah pulled herself together and led Mrs. White into the kitchen. In the living room she could hear her mum explaining that Mrs. White was rather eccentric, but very rich, and had to be humored.

"I thought I'd come over rather than write you a note," Mrs. White explained. "I know your mother doesn't like owl post."

Hannah didn't think her mother would like explaining a witch to her nosy friend, either, but managed to thank Mrs. White for her consideration. She ran upstairs to change into her own robes, wondering how she was going to come back down once she was changed. She was certain her mother would like explaining her daughter's odd attire even less than she liked explaining Mrs. White's. In the end, she decided to stuff her robes and cloak into her bag and change downstairs. Just before she left the room, before she could change her mind, she pulled the elastics out of her hair and brushed the braids out. She ran downstairs and back into the kitchen, where Mrs. White was examining the blender. She tugged the robes over her head and pulled her cloak on. "Ready!" she said. 

Mrs. White beamed at her and they walked a block over to her cottage to use the fireplace to Floo to Diagon Alley.

~~*~*~*~~

"I need those texts, Nott."

"What makes you think I have them and why do you want them?"

"I know you have them. Leda told me you stole them from her."

"Leda's dead. She doesn't need them now. What do you want with them?"

"That's not any of your concern."

Nott's squeaky, wheezy laugh was grating. "Going to try again, are you? You couldn't do it the first time, you can't do it now!"

Nott's eyes widened, and he stared past Ferran. "You've got a student, haven't you? I can see her!" The girl ducked out, startled. Ferran spun around. Susie! Of all the times for the brat to make an appearance!

"Who is she? Does she really have the gift?" Nott's voice was eager.

"She's my daughter. She has no gift," said Ferran quickly. He knew as he said it that it was a pitiful lie. Nott would never believe it.

"And you have no daughter. What are you hiding from me, my old friend?" Ferran stared at Nott's wrinkled old face in the fire, his greasy smile revealing too few crooked and yellowed teeth. This had been a mistake. He should have just gone and taken them. Ferran's only consolation was that he didn't appear to recognize Susie's resemblance to Leda.

"Hogwarts student, eh?" Nott cackled. "You're not fit to teach her. You're nothing but a failure. Send her to me, I'll train her up proper." Nott's mocking laughter rang throughout the room. Ferran heard a small gasp. She was still here! He wanted to throttle her for her stupidity, or at the very least motion her away, but he didn't dare attract any attention to her. He hoped she had the sense not to show her face again, though he doubted it. All he could do was end the exchange as quickly as possible.

"Send the texts or I'll come and fetch them," he said curtly, slamming the fireplace screen shut.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie ran down the hall as soon as she heard the fire screen slam shut, her shoes making almost no noise against the stone floor. She ducked into a nearby room and crouched behind the open door, breathing hard. Who _was_ that old man? What texts did Ferran want? Why didn't Ferran want the man to know who she was and what did the man have to do with her? She hated not knowing, but she didn't dare ask Ferran any of this. He had looked furious when he had seen her. He ought to tell her, though. After all it was all about her, she had a _right_ to know. She would ask him. He _had_ to tell her.

She heard Ferran passing, his footsteps hurried. He was calling for her, and he sounded mad. She would ask him tomorrow. He called out again, louder this time. Or maybe the day after tomorrow. She sat perfectly still, making no noise, certain she would be in trouble if he found her. At last the heavy footsteps faded into the distance, and she got up, dusting off her robes with her hands.

The room obviously hadn't been cleaned in years. It was an old bedroom of some sort. Like the rest of the manor, it looked like it had once been grand and imposing. She wandered around the room a bit, opening the tall wooden armoires and the dressers and peering inside. In the biggest one, she found opulent silk dresses and flower-bedecked hats, surprisingly well preserved. Someone must have charmed them. She lifted a bright pink dress out of the chest and slipped it over her robes. It was adorned with lace and ruffles and frills to such a degree that Susie couldn't see a plain stretch of fabric anywhere. She rummaged through the cabinet once more and found a matching hat, a pink monstrosity covered in garishly hued silk flowers with a few molting, impossibly colored artificial birds sitting among the flowers. The hat fell down to her eyebrows.

Lifting the dress carefully, she went over to a cloudy mirror above a vanity table. She looked at her reflection and giggled.

"That used to be my very favorite dress."

Susie spun around, startled and embarrassed. Lady Marguerite floated behind her, looking at Susie mournfully.

"Mama bought that for me when I got engaged to Sir Richard. He wanted me throw it out after we got married, though." Lady Marguerite came closer to Susie, looking at the dress wistfully. Susie shivered a bit from the cold as the ghost neared, but Lady Marguerite didn't notice. "But I didn't do it. I couldn't. So I brought it here, to Mama's, so I could at least wear it when I visited."

Susie stared at her. She had never seen Lady Marguerite like this. She seemed so sad, not at all like the odd, stuck up, little girlish old woman she was used to. Susie couldn't even find it in her to speak the acid comment she had waiting on her tongue about Lady Marguerite's taste in clothing.

Lady Marguerite continued, oblivious to everything but her own memories. "One time he came back early to fetch me from Mama's, and he saw me wearing it. He tore it off of me, right there in front of everyone. Said that'd teach me to disobey him." Lady Marguerite's voice grew quiet and sorrowful.

Susie looked down and saw a long tear down the bodice that she hadn't noticed before because the dress was so large on her. She stared at the ghost, who was looking at something far way that Susie couldn't see. Without warning, Lady Marguerite floated away through the mirror. Susie threw the hat back into the trunk, and lifted the dress off and threw it in on top of the hat. Dressing up suddenly didn't seem like much fun anymore.


	10. Lost

Chapter 10: Lost

Susie scrambled out of the fireplace in the stationmaster's office on Platform 9 and 3/4 and made to leave when a hand caught her wrist in an iron grip. She gave a loud, exaggerated sigh and turned around to glare at her captor.

"We're _at_ the Platform, can't I go yet?" she asked sulkily.

"Not yet," Ferran told her, hoisting her trunk up with his other hand and dragging it and Susie onto the Platform itself.

"I want you to behave yourself. No Spellcrafting at school. And I want that Theory work done. And the Arithmancy."

"All _right_!" she answered impatiently, searching the crowd for Hannah.

Ferran walked over to the luggage car and threw her trunk in on top of the others. Susie noted its location carefully. Her wand was in there. She turned back to the crowd.

"Hannah!" she shrieked, trying to pry Ferran's fingers off her wrist with her free hand. "Hannah's here, lemme go!"

"I'll see you in a few weeks," he said, completely ignoring her efforts to break his grip. "And remember—"

"I know, I know," Susie cut him off, still trying to free her wrist.

At last he released her, calling after her to 'stay out of trouble!' Ignoring him completely, she ran to Hannah without looking back, shoving her way through a forest of black robed students. She hugged Hannah tightly, and began to gush. "How was your holiday? Mine was awful, I wish I could have been with you! I'll bet it was nice to see your parents. Did they miss you?" Susie asked in one breath.

Together they dragged Hannah's trunk to the luggage car, where Ferran lifted it into the car. Hannah introduced herself politely, but Susie was pulling her towards one of the passenger cars, and she ran off behind Susie with a quick 'Bye, nice to meet you!' to Ferran.

Once they were in the car, Susie ran into the nearest empty compartment and watched intently as Ferran Disapparated off the Platform.

"He's gone, let's go!" she hissed at Hannah, who was making herself comfortable and peering into a small basket Susie hadn't noticed before.

"What? Where are we going?" she asked.

"I've got to get my wand! It's in my trunk!"

Hannah sighed. "Susie, we're not allowed to do magic on the train anyhow. Just wait until we get back to Hogwarts. It'll still be there."

"Yes, but I want to make sure it's still ok. He took it from me, and I haven't seen it since. C'mon, we've got fifteen minutes until the train leaves. I'll just run and fetch it out and we'll be back in no time." And she left the compartment.

Hannah sighed again, peeked in the basket once more, and then followed Susie.

~~*~*~*~~

When Hannah caught up to Susie, she was staring up into the luggage car, now three quarters full, with a thoughtful look on her face which Hannah knew meant trouble. She looked up into the car and saw why. Susie's trunk, easily distinguishable by its age and the broken handle, was underneath two other heavy looking trunks.

"We can't get to it, Susie. Let's just go. You can get your wand back when we get to Hogwarts. I'm sure it's fine."

But Susie wasn't listening. "Lend me your wand, Hannah," she ordered.

"I-it's back in the compartment."

"No, it's not, it's in your pocket, I can see it," Susie said impatiently, holding out her hand for it.

Hannah handed it to her reluctantly, and Susie gave it an exuberant wave and cried, "_Wingardium Leviosa!_"

Several trunks toppled down out of the luggage car with a tremendous clatter and burst open in front of them, attracting the attention of everyone nearby, including two Ravenclaw prefects.

"What are you two doing?" demanded the first, a tall girl with long fair hair.

"I accidentally left something in my trunk," Susie told her, as if this should have been obvious. Hannah rolled her eyes. Susie would only make things worse with her cheek.

"Well it'll just have to stay there, and you're not allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts. You should know that."

Susie looked about ready to argue back, but Hannah kicked Susie in the leg to quiet her, apologized to the prefect, and scuttled back to the train, dragging Susie, now walking with an exaggerated limp, with her.

Back in the compartment, Susie was still thinking about her wand. "We can just wait until they leave and go back and get it," she told Hannah, handing Hannah's wand back to her.

"No. We can't," Hannah said firmly. "We nearly lost points. You'll just have to wait."

Susie looked upset, but was distracted by a small mewing noise coming from a wicker basket on the seat next to Hannah. "What's in there?" she asked, curious now.

Hannah was relieved by the change in subject, and eagerly opened the basket. She pulled out a small, squirming, silvery-grey bundle and placed it gently in Susie's lap.

Susie picked it up and cradled it gently. "A kitten," she whispered, awed. "Where did you get it?"

"Mrs. White gave her to me for Christmas. Her cat had a litter last Halloween."

"You're so lucky," Susie murmured as she held the sleepy kitten, almost too softly for Hannah to hear. The look of longing on her face was almost more than Hannah could bear, and she remembered that Susie didn't have anything just for herself, just because she wanted it, not because she needed it. The little cat was the only thing Hannah had received for Christmas that she had really liked, but at least she _got_ Christmas presents. She wondered if Susie had gotten anything other than the set of colored inks and drawing paper Hannah had given her, but didn't like to ask.

"She's really yours, too," Hannah said in a rush, before she could change her mind. "Mrs. White said so. She said she would have given you a kitten, too, except that she'd promised all the others away already, so we'd have to share this one. She's both of ours." It was a lie, one of the biggest lies she'd ever told, but she knew she'd tell an even bigger one if that was what she had to do to lessen the look of longing on her friend's face.

"Really?" Susie whispered, her eyes filled with hope. "She's really ours to share?"

"Yep," Hannah confirmed, pleased.

"Does she have a name?" she asked softly, as if fearing to disturb the now napping kitten.

"Matilda. But I've been calling her Mattie."

"Mattie. She's perfect."

~~*~*~*~~

Susie ran for her trunk as soon as she entered her dorm and began throwing out its contents in her search for her wand.

"You're going to wish you hadn't scattered all that when you've got to put it all away," Hannah warned her, placing Mattie on her pillow.

Susie sighed and began to unpack with more care, though as this involved dumping everything on her bed instead of all over the floor, it wasn't much better.

Megan and Emma came in soon afterwards, and came over to admire Hannah's new kitten. _Their_ new kitten. She wasn't sure that what Hannah had said about Mrs. White wanting them to share Mattie was entirely true, but she wasn't going to argue. It was the first time she had ever owned a pet, or even partially owned one. Granddad had been allergic to cats, and Grandmother couldn't stand dogs.

After a little more digging and she found her wand at the very bottom of her trunk. She gave it a wave and a few sparks shot out. She wanted to make sure she could still make up spells with it, but that would have to wait until the others weren't around. Ferran had threatened dire consequences if there was so much of a whisper of her Spellcrafting outside of his lessons with her, and she didn't doubt that he would go through with it, either.

The other girls stopped cooing over Mattie, who was looking a bit grumpy at being woken from her map, and began to put their things away. Susie supposed she should, too, but wasn't looking forward to sorting through the mess now strewn all over her bed and floor. Maybe if she waited, Hannah would help her, but she knew Hannah wouldn't like it if she didn't at least make an effort, so she began to half-heartedly sift through the pile of clothes and books and school supplies and toss some of the stuff back into her trunk.

"Megan, you dumped your cloak on my bed," she said irritably, as if one cloak would make a difference to the mess. She held up the offending piece of clothing as evidence.

Megan looked a bit miffed. "I did not. _I_ hung mine up. Besides, that's not even mine. Mine is embroidered black velvet, and that's…well, that's not."

Susie turned to Emma, who studied it for a moment, then concluded, "I don't know. I suppose it might be mine."

"No, you hung yours up, too, remember?" Megan interjected. "C'mon, Emma, let's go get some dinner." Megan flounced from the room, Emma trailing in her wake.

Susie turned to Hannah, who shook her head. "I don't know whose it is, Susie. It must have been in your trunk, since it's not anyone else's. It looks too small to be anyone else's anyhow. Try it on, see if it fits."

Susie wrapped the cloak around her, and it was indeed her size. It fit better than her old one, which had trailed along the floor behind her when she wore it.

"I bet it's from Mr. Behrak. It's probably a Christmas present. You said he didn't give you anything on Christmas Day," Hannah continued.

"He wouldn't do anything like that. He's too mean," Susie said, though she wondered if Hannah might be right.

"He seemed nice enough to me," Hannah said. "And anyhow, who else would it be from?"

Susie twirled around in front of the mirror and watched with pleasure as the cloak flared out around her. "Very nice, dear," complimented the mirror in its sleepy voice.

"You ought to write him a thank you note," said Hannah bossily, watching Susie spin around the room.

Susie plopped down on Hannah's bed and looked at Hannah skeptically. "It's probably not even from him, the house-elf probably stuck it in there by accident," she stalled.

Hannah rolled her eyes and thrust a piece of parchment and a quill at Susie. "Write it," she ordered.

Susie gave a loud, exaggerated sigh, and scrawled a quick note on the parchment. Hannah was probably right. Her grandmother had been picky about thank you notes, too. She had always had to write them to her grandparents' friends, who used to send her frilly pink birthday gifts and thought she was just too precious for words.

She handed the note over to Hannah for inspection. Hannah gave it back. "At least tell him you like it," she said.

Susie squeezed in a few more words and looked at her note.

Ferran,

Thank you for the cloak. It's very nice.

Susie

Hannah looked as if she wanted to say something, but thought better of it. She sighed and said, "All right, go ahead and send it."

Susie shoved it into a drawer. "I'll send it later. I don't feel like going down to the owlery right now."

Hannah shot her an exasperated look and took the note back out of the drawer. She grabbed Susie's elbow and tugged her toward the door. "Send it _now._ C'mon I'll go with you, and you can see if that cloak is as warm as it looks."

Thinking that showing off her new cloak was a good idea, and Susie followed obediently.

~~*~*~*~~

Susie shot a sour look at the prefect sitting next to her in the carriage. Charlotte Harris, a pretty Hufflepuff 6th year, ignored her and continued to chat with the two other 6th years sharing their carriage. Susie sighed loudly. All her plans had been ruined when Professor Sprout had assigned a prefect to escort her to the Three Broomsticks pub to meet Ferran.

The carriage jerked to a stop, and Susie leapt to her feet, preparing to make a run for it. She was the only first year allowed to go to Hogsmeade, and she didn't intend to waste the trip studying with Ferran. Especially since she hadn't done any of the work he had assigned her.

Charlotte spotted her and grabbed Susie's shoulder just as she was about to leap out. "Oh, no you don't," she said, tightening her grip. She rolled her eyes at her friends, who looked sympathetic in return.

The door opened and a Gryffindor boy grinned up into the carriage, offering his hand to help the girls down. He waited until the two other girls had wandered off and spoke softly to Charlotte, who still hadn't let go of Susie. "I found some early flowers in the woods, come on, I want to show them to you."

He took Charlotte's hand and Susie sighed in exasperation.

"I- I need to drop her off at the pub" Charlotte stammered and blushed. Susie watched as Charlotte laced her finger's through the boy's.

"If you go to the pub, you'll get caught up talking and everyone will want to know where we're going and we won't have any time to ourselves," he explained impatiently. "She can find her way to the pub by herself, can't you, kid?"

Susie agreed eagerly, hope rising within her. Maybe her visit to Hogsmeade wouldn't be such a waste after all.

"I don't know," Charlotte said uncertainly. "Professor Sprout said I was to take her to The Three Broomsticks..."

"Professor Sprout probably just didn't want her to get lost," he coaxed. "And she can't possibly get lost. Look, you can see it from here."

Susie hated being talked about like she wasn't there, but put up with it for the sake of her freedom. She butted in, eager to confirm the boy's opinion. "That's right, Professor Sprout just didn't want me to get lost. I'm fine, now. You go on, I'm ok," she assured them.

"Well, if you're sure," Charlotte asked, sounding more delighted than concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Susie told her casually, trying not to sound too excited and raise suspicion.

They left her alone, making their way towards the forest without so much as a backward glance.

Susie watched them leave with great satisfaction. As soon as she was sure they were gone, she looked around Hogsmeade. It was her first trip to Hogsmeade, and she was going to make the most of it. She decided to follow a crowd of students to Honeyduke's first. She could sample the new chocolate everyone was talking about and maybe get a late Christmas present for Hannah.

Once in the store, she realized she might have a problem. She was at least a foot shorter than everyone else, and looked very much the first year. So far, all she'd gotten was a few strange looks, but she was certain there would be a prefect would come along soon to drag her away. She nibbled a bit of the honey flavored chocolate they were giving out and glanced over her shoulder. It occurred to her suddenly that she should have sent Ferran a note saying she wasn't coming. Would he ask about her when she didn't show up? She began to feel a bit nervous, and looked over her shoulder again.

She swallowed the rest of the sweet chocolate without tasting it, and wondered if he'd be more likely to find her here in a crowd or someplace less popular. She opted for a less populated place, think perhaps that would be the last place he'd look.

Looking out the frosty window, she spotted a pet shop across the street. She had a few sickles Ferran had given her. She would go get a collar for Mattie. Blue would go best with her grey fur. Or maybe they had Hufflepuff colors. Feeling better with a purpose, she strode confidently across the road. No one would look for her in a pet shop.

"SUSAN BONES!"

Susie didn't bother to turn around. It was Ferran, and he sounded furious. She hesitated for a moment, then decided to make a run for it and try to make it back to the carriages to hide. She took off, heading in the general direction of the carriages. She was vaguely aware of people pointing, and also of Ferran's voice shouting out spells.

She felt a spell barely miss her, and fear gave her added speed. She came over a rise and saw the carriages. Despair clutched her. She would never be able to run that far! She heard Ferran shouting behind her, and she made a split second decision. She turned to run into the forest, where her small size would give her the advantage. It couldn't be _that_ dangerous. She would just go a little ways in and return to the castle later, when he had gone.

The branches tore at her robes and cloak and hair, slowing her down. Full of fear now, she pulled out her wand and screamed, "Get out of my way!" A blinding flash of light and a sharp _crack_, and she had cleared a five foot swath through the forest. Heart pounding, she took off again, deeper into the heart of the forest. She heard rustling behind her, and glancing back, she saw the branches and bushes closing behind her, hiding her path. Good! Ferran couldn't follow her now.

She finally allowed herself to slow down and walk for a bit, the blood pounding in her head making her dizzy. At last, when all she could hear was the deep winter silence of the forest, she collapsed in a small clearing and caught her breath. She looked around. All she could see in every direction was trees. Everything looked the same. There were no footprints, no broken branches, nothing to indicate where she had come in. Nothing to indicate the way out.

~~*~*~*~~

Hannah sat in a window seat and stared out the common room window at the forest that held her friend. It looked dark and evil and cold.

She felt someone wrap a blanket around her shoulders and looked up. It was Charlotte Harris, the prefect who had been assigned to escort Susie to Hogsmeade. There were tears running down her face, and Hannah felt a swell of pity. She knew Charlotte had been closeted with Professor Sprout and Professor Dumbledore since Mr. Behrak had come, pale and exhausted and furious, and told them what had happened. He had left just moments after he had come, though Hannah had begged him to tell her what had happened. Hannah wondered if he was still out combing the forest.

Knowing Susie, it probably wasn't Charlotte's fault at all. Susie had been complaining earlier about having to go study with Mr. Behrak. Hannah shouldn't be surprised by this at all. She was angry and worried and frustrated by her friend's stupidity. This time Susie had gone too far.

__

'What the hell is wrong with that kid?' Mr. Behrak had shouted at her in frustration just before he left again. But Hannah didn't know either.

Why did she feel she had to fight everyone all the time? Why did she seem to think everyone was out to get her? Hannah wondered what the orphanage had really been like. Or was Susie just like that naturally? Hannah stared out at the night sky, but the bright moon and flickering stars offered no answers. Sighing, she wrapped the blanket around her more closely and resumed her vigil.

"Won't you go to bed?" Charlotte pleaded after a moment. "It's after midnight."

Hannah shook her head. She couldn't sleep. Not now.

Charlotte sat on the other side of the window seat opposite Hannah and watched the forest as well. Every now and then a pinprick of light would appear and then die. Hannah had seen them before, but they had never looked malicious until now. Against her will, the world blurred and Hannah slipped into a fitful sleep.

A/N: As usual, a million thanks to Aristyar. Thanks also to those who've reviewed. Sorry this update has taken so long.


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